THE   DICKENS  CIRCLE 


<  \ 


I  I/" 


J 


Charles  Dickens 

(1836) 

From    a   Pencil   Sketch    by    George    Cruikshank 

Frontispiece 


THE 
DICKENS  CIRCLE 

A    NARRATIVE    OF    THE 
NOVELIST'S    FRIENDSHIPS 


BY 

J.  W.  T.   LEY 


WITH  PORTRAITS  AND  OTHER  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

68 1   Fifth  Avenue 


Published  1919 
By  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Reserved 


LOAN  STACK 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


cL 


THIS  FIRST 

AMERICAN  EDITION 

IS  DEDICATED 

TO 

TO  WHOSE  UNSELFISHNESS 
I  OWE  SO  MUCH 


434 


PREFACE 


From  the  time  when,  as  a  very  raw  youth,  I  first  came  to 
know  anything  about  Charles  Dickens,  I  have  been  attracted 
by  the  magnetic  personality  of  the  man  himself  even  more 
than  by  the  men  and  women  he  created.  The  outstanding 
impression  that  I  gained  from  my  first  reading  of  Forster's 
Life  of  Charles  Dickens  was  of  this  magnetism  of  his  person- 
ality which  attracted  to  him  so  many  of  the  most  brilliant 
men  and  women  of  the  time,  and  won  for  him  their  whole- 
hearted friendship.  That  impression  was  deepened  as  I  read 
more  widely.  Youth,  of  course,  discovers  wonders  contin- 
ually which  it  is  amazed  to  find  are  already  well  known  to  its 
parents,  but  the  amazement  in  my  case  arose  out  of  the  fact 
that  this  very  striking  phase  of  Dickens's  character — tliis 
extraordinary  capacity  of  his  for  friendship — had  not  ap- 
parently been  discovered.  At  any  rate,  it  had  never  been 
adequately  dealt  with.  I  was  struck  by  the  fact  that  this 
man  Dickens,  comparatively  unlettered  as  he  was,  who  had 
had  no  material  advantages  in  life,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
many  disadvantages,  should  not  merely  have  come  to  know 
so  many  of  his  peers — that  was  inevitable — but  should  have 
so  won  their  affection ;  should  have  been  so  loved  by  old  men 
like  Landor  and  Leigh  Hunt,  and  Jeffrey,  by  men  of  his  own 
age  like  Forster,  and  Maclise,  and  Talfourd,  and  by  men  of 
a  younger  generation  like  Percy  Fitzgerald,  James  Payn  and 
Charles  Kent;  should  have  been  accepted  by  them  all  as  the 
sun  of  their  firmament. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  proper  study  for  mankind  is  Man, 
it  is  equally  true  that  men  most  reveal  themselves  in  their 
relations  with  men.  In  my  desire  to  gain  a  true  notion  as  to 
what  manner  of  man  Dickens  really  was,  I  found  Forster's 
book  disappointing.     I  have  no  quarrel  with  him  on  that 


viii  PREFACE 

ground;  he  could  not  be  expected  to  give  more  than  a  com- 
prehensive portrait  of  his  subject,  with  the  Hghts  and  shades 
that  he  himself  saw.  But  his  book  did  little  more  than  whet 
my  appetite,  as  it  were.  Paragraphic  references  were  made 
to  famous  men  of  brilliant  and  fascinating  parts,  little  more 
than  hints  were  given  of  the  novelist's  relations  with  some  of 
those  men.  And  so  I  sought  elsewhere.  I  began  to  read 
widely  in  Victorian  biography  and  autobiography,  and  thus 
I  gained  a  knowledge,  not  only  of  Dickens,  but  of  many  other 
noble  and  worthy  men  of  the  period,  which  I  could  not  have 
gained  otherwise,  and  which  has  been  helpful  and  inspiring 
to  me. 

The  result  of  my  labours — unhappy  word! — is  here.  It 
has  many  faults,  I  have  no  doubt.  I  only  claim  that  it  has 
been  done  conscientiously  by  one  who  loves  Ixis  subject.  My 
difficulty  has  been  to  decide  what  to  omit.  I  have  been  almost 
overwhelmed  with  material,  but  I  tried  all  along  to  avoid  any- 
thing in  the  nature  of  a  Gradgrindish  compilation.  I  am 
vain  enough  to  hope  that  my  fellow  Dickensians  will  find  this 
book  a  useful  auxiliary  to  Forster.  I  am  modest  enough  to 
have  aimed  at  nothing  higher. 

I  suppose  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  man  to  write  a 
book  on  Dickens  to-day  without  having  to  acknowledge  in- 
debtedness to  Mr.  B.  W.  Matz.  That  gentleman  has  been 
one  of  my  most  valued  personal  friends  for  a  good  many 
years  now.  I  succeeded  him  as  Hon.  General  Secretary  of 
the  Dickens  Fellowship,  and  sat  with  liira  on  the  Council 
of  that  remarkable  organisation  for  five  years ;  I  was  a  mem- 
ber, with  him,  of  the  little  Committee  which,  with  fear  and 
trembling,  launched  The  Dickensian,  that  bright  little  maga,- 
zine  which  he  has  so  ably  edited  for  fourteen  years;  I  have 
been  associated  with  him  in  innumerable  Dickensian  ventures ; 
and  time  and  time  again  I  have  been  indebted  to  him  for 
his  advice  and  help — both  ever  ready  and  ever  valuable — as 
well  as  for  many  personal  kindnesses  of  a  more  intimate 
character.  And  now  I  want  to  say  that  but  for  him  I  could 
never  have  written  this  book.  I  have  had  to  turn  to  him 
again  and  again.  His  unique  knowledge  was  always  at  my 
disposal,  so  were  the  contents  of  his  excellent  library,  and 
when  he  did  not  himself  possess  a  book  that  I  needed  he 
begged  or  borrowed  it  for  me.    But  for  his  persistent  encour- 


PREFACE  ix 

agement  I  doubt  if  I  should  ever  have  seriously  tackled  the 
work  at  all ;  but  for  his  consistent  help  I  know  I  could  never 
have  completed  it. 

There  are  others  who  have  rendered  help  which  I  grate- 
fully acknowledge.  Mr.  William  Miller,  another  old  Dicken- 
sian  friend,  has  answered  many  inquiries  out  of  his  marvellous 
store  of  knowledge,  and  loaned  me  books ;  Mrs.  Perugini,  too, 
has  most  kindly  answered  inquiries;  the  Marquis  of  Crewe 
generously  loaned  to  me  the  originals  of  all  Dickens's  letters 
to  his  father  and  mother;  Lord  Tennyson  gave  me  some 
valuable  information  about  his  father's  friendship  with 
Dickens,  and  authorised  me  to  quote  from  his  Memoir  of  his 
father;  Mr.  Marcus  Stone,  R.A.,  gave  me  a  personal  inter- 
view. 

Of  the  books  I  have  consulted  I  could  not  possibly  give  a 
complete  list.  Their  name  is  Legion.  But  where  I  have 
quoted  I  have  made  acknowledgment  in  the  text  or  in  a 
footnote. 

J.  W.  T.  Ley. 

Newport,  Mon., 
June  1918. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAQB 

I.  INTRODUCTORY 1 

II.  FRIENDS   OF   BOYHOOD   AND   YOUTH        ...  6 

III.  WILLIAM    HARRISON   AINSWORTH    ....  11 

IV.  GEORGE    CRUIKSHANK 20 

V.  WILLIAM    CHARLES   MACREADY         ....  27 

VI.  ROBERT    BROWNING 39 

viL  "phiz" 42 

VIII.  THOMAS   NOON   TALFOURD 48 

IX.  WALTER   SAVAGE   LANDOR 54 

X.  "dear  old  mac" 65 

XI.  GEORGE   CATTERMOLE 75 

XII.  WaLLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY          ...  80 

XIII.  DOUGLAS   JERROLD 97 

XIV.  THE   LANDSEERS 107 

XV.  "noble  OLD  stanny" 110 

XVI.  FRANCIS  JEFFREY 118 

XVII.  SIR    DAVID   WILKIE 130 

XVin.  SOME   SCOTCH   FRIENDS 132 

XIX.  A   DISTINGUISHED   GROUP 134 

XX.  WILLIAM  JERDAN 140 

XXI.  JOHN   GIBSON   LOCKHART 144 

XXn.  SAMUEL   ROGERS 147 

XXIII.  THOMAS   HOOD 151 

XXIV.  LEIGH    HUNT 155 

XXV.  CAPTAIN   MARRYAT 161 

XXVI.  CHARLES    KNIGHT 165 

xi 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

xxx\a. 

XXXVII. 

XXX  VIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 

XLII. 

XLIII. 
XLIV. 
XLV. 
XLVI. 

XL^^I. 

XLVIII. 

XLIX. 

L. 

LI. 

LII. 

LIII. 

LIV. 

LV. 

LVI. 


PAQB 

"bARRY   CORNWALL"    AND    HIS    DAUGHTER              .  169 
FRANK   STONE   AND   HIS   SON            .          .          .          .172 

SOME   LIMBS   OF   THE    LAW 180 

GORE   HOUSE   FRIENDS 183 

THE   HON.  MRS.   NORTON 189 

MISS   COUTTS 192 

THE   GOOD   EARL 195 

LORD  JOHN   RUSSELL 198 

THOMAS   CARLYLE 205 

BULWER   LYTTON    AND    LAMAN    BLANCHARD            .  210 

TENNYSON 219 

A   GROUP   OF   PUBLISHERS 221 

AMERICAN   FRIENDS — WASHINGTON   IRVING            .  225 

"                      "              LONGFELLOW        .          .          .  230 

"                      "              PROFESSOR   FELTON    .          .  233 
"                      "              HOLMES,    LOWELL,    AND 

OTHERS     ....  236 

"                       "               MR.  &  MRS.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS  238 

RICHARD   MONCKTON   MILNES            ....  242 

W.   J.   FOX   AND   REV,    WILLIAM    HARNESS       .           .  248 

MR.   AND   MRS.   WATSON 252 

WILLIAM  H.^X,DIMAND,  MONS  DE  CERJAT,  AND  THE 

BROOKFIELDS                     257 

mary  boyle  and  sir  william  boxall    .        .  262 

amateur  theatricals lord  mulgrave        .  268 

john  leech 271 

"uncle  mark" 277 

augustus  egg 283 

mrs.  cowden  clarke 287 

the  duke  of  devonshire 291 

many  "splendid  strollers"     ....  293 

a  group  of  actors 301 


CONTENTS  xiii 


CHAP. 


PAGH 


LVII.     REV.  JAMES   WHITE 304 

LVIII.  SOME  VALUED   FRIENDS   OF  THE   PERIOD      .          .       306 

LIX.  CHAUNCEY   HARE  TOWNSHEND        .          .          .          .310 

LX.  AN   EDITOR   AND   AN   HISTORIAN     .          .          .          .313 

LXI.  SOME   LESSER   FRIENDSHIPS  OF   THIS   PERIOD       .       316 

LXII.     A   BIG   GROUP  OF  ARTISTS 324 

LXIII.  HENRY   FOTHERGILL   CHORLEY         ....       331 

LXIV.     WILKIE  COLLINS 334 

LXV.  DICKENS  AS  AN  EDITOR — HIS  FRIENDSHIP  WITH 

W.  H.   WILLS 341 

LXVI.     EDMUND  YATES 347 

LXVII.     PERCY  FITZGERALD 350 

LXVni.     CHARLES  KENT  . 355 

LXIX.     HENRY  MORLEY 358 

LXX.     G,  A.  SALA 361 

LXXI.     MRS.   LYNN   LINTON 368 

LXXII.  SOME  MORE  MEMBERS   OF  THE   BAND             .          ,       371 

LXXIII.  TWO  LADIES — MRS.  GASKELL  AND  MISS  MARTINEAU    375 

LXXIV.  ARTHUR  AND  ALBERT  SMITH  AND  GEORGE  DOLBY      381 

LXXV.  HANS   CHRISTIAN  ANDERSEN             ....       385 

LXXVI.  CHARLES  ALBERT   FECHTER    .          •          •          •          .390 

LXXVII.  THE   GREATEST   OF  THEM  ALL         .          .          .          .       393 

INDEX .  .       413 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  page 

CHARLES  DICKENS  (1836)        ....     Frontispiece 

W.  HARRISON   AINSWORTH 12 

GEORGE   CRUIKSHANK 22 

WILLIAM   CILIRLES  MACREADY 30 

H.   K.   BROWNE    ("PHIz") 44 

T.  N.  TALFOURD 50 

LANDOr's   HOUSE  AT   BATH 56 

WALTER   SAVAGE  LANDOR 56 

DANIEL  MACLISE,  R.A 66 

CHARLES   DICKENS    (1839) 68 

THE     FOUR     ELDER     CHILDREN     OF     CHARLES     DICKENS — 

CHARLEY,  MAMIE,  KATEY,  AND  WALLY,  WITH  GRIP  THE 

RAVEN 70 

THE  NYMPH  AT  THE  WATERFALL  AT  ST.  KNIGHTON's  KIEVE, 

NEAR   TINTAGEL 70 

4     AILSA    PARK    VILLAS,    TWICKENHAM,     WHERE    DICKENS 

RESIDED   IN    1838 76 

W.  M.  THACKERAY 88 

DICKENS  AND   HIS   FRIENDS   IN   CORNWALL    ....  88 

CLARKSON   STANFIELD,  R.A 110 

PERFORMANCE    OF    "nOT    SO    BAD    AS    WE   SEEM,"    BEFORE 

queen  victoria  and  prince  albert,  at  devonshire 

house,  on  may  16,  1851       .       .      .       .       .       .  114 

"the  lighthouse" 114 

SIR  DAVID   WILKIE,  R.A 124 

FRANCIS  JEFFREY 124 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  page 

PROFESSOR  JOHN   WILSON 124 

SAMUEL  ROGERS          .... 148 

CAPTAIN  FREDERICK   MARRTAT,  R.N 156 

LEIGH   HUNT 156 

CHARLES   DICKENS   IN   HIS   STUDY  AT  TA\^STOCK   HOUSE    .  174 

LORD   LYTTON 210 

WASHINGTON   IRVING 226 

ROCKINGHAIVI  ;CASTLE,  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,  THE  HOME  OF 

THE   HON.   MR.   AND  MRS.  RICHARD   WATSON            .          .  254 

THE   HON.  RICHARD   WATSON 254 

THE   HON.  MRS.   RICHARD   WATSON 254 

KOHN   LEECH 272 

MARK   LEMON 280 

AUGUSTUS   EGG,  R.A.            . 280 

CHARLES  DICKENS  AS  SIR  CHARLES  COLDSTREAM  IN  "uSED 

up" 296 

no.  1,  devonshire  terrace 304 

CHARLES   DICKENS    (1859) 324 

TOM  SMART  AND  THE   CHAIR,  BY  JOHN   LEECH     .          .          .  328 

W.   H.   WILLS 342 

gad's   HILL   PLACE 358 

HANS   CHRISTIAN   ANDERSEN 386 

JOHN   FORSTER 394 

CHARLES   DICKENS    (1868) 406 


AUTHOR'S    INTRODUCTION    TO    THE 
AMERICAN    EDITION 

"I  DO  believe  that  from  the  great  majority  of  honest 
minds  on  both  sides,  there  cannot  be  absent  the  conviction 
that  it  would  be  better  for  this  globe  to  be  riven  by  an  earth- 
quake, fired  by  a  comet,  overrun  by  an  iceberg,  and 
abandoned  to  the  Arctic  fox  and  bear,  than  that  it  should 
present  the  spectacle  of  these  two  great  nations,  each  of 
which  has,  in  its  own  way  and  hour,  striven  so  hard  and  so 
successfully  for  freedom,  ever  again  being  arrayed  the  one 
against  the  other."  So  said  Charles  Dickens  in  the  last 
speech  but  one  that  he  made  in  America — in  April  1868. 
How  his  heart  would  have  glowed  if  he  had  been  alive  when, 
forty-nine  years  later  to  the  very  month,  the  two  great 
nations  were  thrown  together  in  the  culminating  fight  for 
freedom.  How  those  immortal  words  of  General  Pershing's 
in  1918  would  have  thrilled  him:  "I  have  come  to  tell  you 
that  America  would  feel  itself  greatly  honoured  if  its  troops 
were  engaged  in  the  present  battles." 

America  and  England  have  stood  side  by  side  in  the  great 
fight.  The  blood  of  their  sons  has  mingled  on  the  fields  of 
France,  and  such  a  world  disaster  as  Dickens  proclaimed 
against  has  surely  been  rendered  impossible  for  all  time.  I 
offer  no  apology  for  striking  this  note  here.  My  book  is 
almost  wholly  concerned  with  friendship.  In  the  last  two 
or  three  years  there  has  been  cemented  a  friendship  between 
the  two  great  English-speaking  nations  of  tremendous 
import  to  the  future  of  Man.  There  are  captious  people 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  they  have  loud  voices,  but 
on  this  side  I  know  they  do  not  speak  for  the  masses ;  I  am 
not  without  evidence  that  the  same  may  be  truthfully  said  of 
those  on  the  other  side.  The  two  great  free  Peoples  are 
friends.  They  have  suffered  and  sorrowed  together  in  the 
common  cause — the  noblest  cause  of  all — and  a  friendship 
so  sealed  in  suffering  and  sorrow  cannot  but  be  lasting. 
Dickers'  words  were  true  in  1868;  they  have  infinitely  more 


xviii         AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

force  to-day.  Such  an  event  as  he  then  declared  would  be 
a  world-disaster  is  unthinkable  now.  "Out  of  evil  cometh 
good."  Out  of  the  horrors  of  the  recent  war  has  come  this 
great  friendship  which  will  assuredly'  prove  the  mightiest 
influence  for  good  the  world  has  ever  known. 

Dickens  would  have  been  the  first  to  realise  the  true  sig- 
nificance of  this  happening,  and  he  would  have  been  very 
glad.  I  believe,  indeed,  that  if  we  were  to  trace  back  the 
influences  that  have  combined  to  bring  about  this  consumma- 
tion we  should  find  that  Dickens  was  one  of  the  most  potent. 
He  off"ended  America  when  he  was  j^et  a  very  young  man, 
but  I  think  the  resentment  never  lay  verj^  deep,  and  all  the 
time  the  spirits  of  Little  Nell,  and  Smike,  Mr.  Pickwick  and 
Sam  Weller,  Paul  Dombey  and  Oliver  Twist  were  exercising 
their  good  influence.  When  he  returned  to  the  land  of  Wash- 
ington Ir\'ing  and  Longfellow  after  a  lapse  of  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  America  showed  him  that  she  had  forgiven,  and 
he,  on  his  part,  was  glad  to  grasp  the  hand  of  friendship  and 
to  make  amends  nobly.  That  declaration  which  accom- 
panies every  copy  of  American  Notes  and  Martin  Chuzzlewit 
bears  lasting  testimony  to  the  magnanimity  of  Americans 
and  the  frank  true-heartedness  of  Dickens.  He  laughed  at 
national  foibles,  he  declared  boldl^^  and  uncompromisingly 
the  grievance  under  which  he  chafed,  but  the  evidence  is 
overwhelming  that  in  his  heart  always  there  was  a  genuine 
admiration  and  aff'ection  for  the  American  people. 

They  perhaps  had  some  justification  for  the  resentment 
they  felt  in  1842  and  184-3,  but  in  truth  their  hearts  never 
ceased  to  incline  to  the  man  who  had  brought  so  much 
healthful  enjoyment  into  their  lives,  and  when  he  revisited 
them  all  unpleasantness  was  flung  aside  forever  more. 
To-day  the  spirit  of  Dickens  holds  sway  in  America  as  it 
always  did,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  common 
aff'ection  for  that  great  lover  of  humanity,  that  great  pro- 
claimer  of  the  fundamental  goodness  of  human  nature,  has 
done  more  than  almost  anything  else,  save  the  common  sor- 
rows of  the  recent  war,  to  bring  the  two  Peoples  to  a  better 
understanding  of  each  other,  and  so  to  friendship.  I  believe 
that  the  spirits  of  good  men  who  have  passed  over  go  on 
incessantly  serving  us  who  are  awaiting  our  turn.     Is  it  too 


AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION  xix 

extreme  a  fancy  to  imagine  the  spirits  of  Dickens  and  Irving, 
and  Longfellow,  and  Holmes,  and  Felton,  and  Lowell,  close- 
bound  there  as  they  were  here,  working  together  to  bring 
the  two  great  nations  whom  they  so  nobly  served  when  in 
the  flesh  close  together  in  bonds  of  imperishable  friendship? 

I  would  say  but  a  word  or  two  about  this  book.  I  have 
learned  from  American  reviewers  (who,  without  exception, 
have  been  most  generous)  that  I  have  omitted  one  or  two 
Americans  who  were  friendly  with  Dickens.  I  hope  I  shaU 
be  forgiven  such  a  fault.  I  think  it  will  be  found  that  I  have 
omitted  very  few  men  of  real  standing  in  their  time  who  were 
on  terms  of  friendship  with  the  novelist.  One  or  two  who 
have  been  named  are  never  referred  to  in  any  biography  of 
Dickens  or  in  any  of  his  letters,  and  therefore  can  scarcely 
be  presumed  to  have  entered  into  his  life  to  any  appreciable 
extent.  A  more  common  criticism  has  been  that  I  included 
rather  too  many  people,  and  that  some  famous  people  have 
no  business  in  the  book  because,  although  they  had  extensive 
associations  with  the  novelist,  they  were  never  friends.  One 
American  reviewer  has  included  George  Cruikshank  in  this 
category.  He  is  wrong,  for  George  was,  in  the  earlier  days, 
very  friendly  indeed  with  Dickens.  But  my  purpose  was 
not  simply  to  treat  of  friendship  as  such,  but  to  show,  if  I 
could,  how  Dickens  and  great  men  and  women  of  his  time 
acted  and  reacted  upon  one  another,  and  so  to  throw  some 
fresh  light  upon  a  great  and  attractive  personality.  That 
is  why  I  called  the  book  The  Dickens  Circle,  and  not  The 
Friendships  of  Charles  Dickens. 

For  the  rest,  I  want  to  say  how  deeply  the  reception  of 
this  book  in  America  has  touched  me.  Not  one  reviewer  has 
uttered  an  unkind  word.  It  is  in  keeping  with  all  my  experi- 
ence of  Americans.  I  am  proud  in  the  possession  of  many 
personal  friends  across  the  Atlantic.  Some  I  have  met  in 
the  flesh,  and  spent  happy  hours  with  them;  others  I  know 
autographically ;  but  all  of  them  I  may  truthfully  describe 
as  friends.  If  this  book  creates  more  friendships  for  me  in 
the  land  of  Washington  Irving,  I  shall  be  a  happy  man. 

J.  W.  T.  Ley. 
Newport,  Monmouthshire,  England. 
August,  1919. 


THE   DICKENS  CIRCLE 


THE   DICKENS  CIRCLE 


CHAPTER  I 

INTEODUCTORY 

"My  art  has  brought  acquaintances  by  scores, 
But  to  my  character  I  owe  my  friends." 

There  is  no  surer  test  of  a  man's  character  than  to  ask, 
"Who  are  his  friends?"  For  the  unworthy  man  does  not 
hold  the  friendship  of  worthy  men.  Few  men  come  out  of 
the  test  better  than  Charles  Dickens.  Many  other  great  men 
have  had  big  circles ;  many  Davids  have  had  their  Jonathans ; 
but  no  man  ever  had  a  bigger  or  more  notable  circle,  and 
none  was  ever  more  loved  by  those  who  were  admitted  to 
his  friendship.  He  had,  indeed,  the  capacity  for  friendship 
in  a  superlative  degree.  Of  the  attractiveness  of  his  person- 
ality many  have  written  in  terms  of  enthusiasm.  They  all 
bear  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Forster's  declaration: 

"His  place  was  not  to  be  filled  by  any  other.  To  the 
most  trivial  talk  he  gave  the  attraction  of  his  own 
character.  It  might  be  a  small  matter;  something  he 
had  read  during  the  day,  some  quaint  odd  fancy  from 
a  book,  a  vivid  little  outdoor  picture,  the  laughing  ex- 
posure of  some  imposture,  or  a  burst  of  sheer  mirthful 
enjoyment;  but  of  its  kind  it  would  be  something 
unique,  because  genuinely  part  of  himself.  This,  and 
his  unwearying  animal  spirits,  made  him  the  most 
delightful  of  companions;  no  claim  on  good-fellowship 
ever  found  him  wanting;  and  no  one  so  constantly 
recalled  to  his  friends  the  description  Johnson  gave 
of  Garrick,  as  the  chcerfullcst  man  of  his  age." 


2  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

In  another  place  Forster  says: 

"It  was  an  excellent  saying  of  the  first  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury, that,  seeing  every  man  of  any  capacity  holds 
within  himself  two  men,  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  each 
of  them  ought  freely  to  be  allowed  his  turn;  and  it 
was  one  of  the  secrets  of  Dickens's  social  charm  that  he 
could,  in  strict  accordance  with  this  saying,  allow  each 
part  of  him  its  turn:  could  afford  thoroughly  to  give 
rest  and  relief  to  what  was  serious  in  him,  and  when  the 
time  came  to  play  his  gambols,  could  surrender  himself 
wholly  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  time,  and  become  the 
very  genius  and  embodiment  of  one  of  his  own  most 
whimsical  fancies." 

These  are  the  declarations  of  a  man  who  loved  DIclcens  as 
his  life,  but  they  are  confirmed  by  a  hundred  witnesses.  But 
he  was  something  very  much  more  than  a  bright  and  delight- 
ful companion.  He  won  friendship,  and  he  won  it  because 
he  gave  it.  "Charles  Dickens,"  says  Lady  Pollock,  "was 
and  is  to  me  the  ideal  of  friendship."  "He  was  indeed  a  man 
of  magnanimous  and  practical  sympathy,"  wrote  Mrs.  Cat- 
termole.  Read  of  him  cheering  Macready  in  his  lonely  re- 
tirement; read  of  him  going  to  see  Stanfield  in  his  illness  and 
so  cheering  him  by  his  description  of  Fechter's  latest  play, 
*'fightlng  a  duel  with  the  washstand,  defying  the  bedstead, 
and  saving  the  life  of  the  sofa-cushion,"  that  the  sick  man 
"turned  the  corner  on  the  spot."  Read  of  him  always  glad 
to  slap  a  friend  on  the  back  and  felicitate  him  on  a  success ; 
always  first  to  cheer  him  in  failure;  always  by  to  grasp  his 
hand  and  say  and  do  the  right  thing  in  sorrow  and  suffering ; 
read  of  him  helping  to  start  capable  young  writers  on  the 
road  that  leads  to  success ;  read  of  him  as  an  editor  to  whom 
nothing  was  too  much  trouble  if  he  could  advise  or  help  a 
young  and  promising  contributor ;  read  of  him  the  life  and 
the  soul  of  children's  parties.  What  wonder  that  this  man 
should  have  attracted  good  men  to  him  and  wound  their 
affections  round  his  heart? 

"Angels,"  says  Young,  "from  Friendship  gather  half  their 
joys."  Dickens  was,  indeed,  a  happy  man.  Scarce  a  great 
man  of  his  time  but  loved  him.     And,  be  it  noted,  in  all  his 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

wide  circle  there  was  none  who  sought  reflected  glory.  They 
all  shone  by  their  own  unaided  light.  Many  of  them  were 
famous  before  he  had  been  heard  of ;  there  were  few  of  them 
who  were  not  better  educated  than  he  was,  who  had  not  had 
better  opportunities  in  life.  Herein,  surely,  lies  proof  of  the 
man's  innate  greatness.  It  is  a  wondeiful  thing  that  this 
newspaper  reporter  who  had  had  no  opportunities  but  what 
he  had  made  for  himself,  whose  earliest  admirers  had  been 
the  frequenters  of  the  bar-parlour  at  Chatham,  who  had  had 
practically  no  schooling  at  all,  whose  chief  mentors  in  his 
boyhood  had  been  the  inmates  of  a  Debtors'  prison,  whose 
boyhood  companions  had  been  the  drudges  of  a  blacking 
warehouse — that  this  man  should,  before  he  was  thirty  years 
old,  have  been  the  dominating  spirit  in  a  circle  which  com- 
prised some  of  the  finest  minds  of  a  period  which  was  so  rich 
in  fine  minds. 

Before  he  was  thirty  years  old!  Nay,  before  he  was 
twenty-six  years  old.  He  celebrated  his  thirtieth  birthday 
in  America,  where  he  had  already  formed  close  friendships 
with  Washington  Irving,  Longfellow,  Felton,  and  others, 
whilst  he  had  left  behind  him  men  like  Macready,  Maclise, 
Forster,  Jerrold,  Talfourd,  Jeffrey,  Landor,  who  loved  him 
truly,  with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  intimate  friendship. 

When  he  was  yet  some  two  or  three  years  short  of  thirty 
he  was  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Shakespeare 
Society,  in  association  with  Proctor,  Talfourd,  Macready, 
Thackeray,  Blanchard,  Charles  Knight,  Douglas  Jerrold, 
Maclise,  Stanficld,  Cattermole,  Charles  and  Thomas  Land- 
seer,  and  Frank  Stone.  Every  one  of  these  names  is  that 
of  a  man  of  first-class  abilities  who  called  Dickons  friend. 
And  to  them,  even  at  this  time,  must  be  added  Jeffrey,  Leigh 
Hunt,  Landor,  Samuel  Rogers,  Carlyle,  etc.  A  short  three 
j^ears  before  Dickens  had  been  an  utterly  obscure  newspaper 
reporter  with  never  a  book  to  his  credit.  Practically  every 
one  of  these  men  had  at  that  time  achieved  independent  fame. 
Several  of  them  were  much  older  than  Dickens;  three  of 
them  were  old  enough  to  be  his  grandfather,  and  had  been 
famous  before  he  was  born.  They  were  exceptionally  gifted 
men  of  widely  differing  temperaments,  irresistibly  attracted 
by  the  magnetism  of  this  young  writer.  And  as  the  years 
rolled  on  none  of  them  drifted  away.     In  one  or  two  cases 


4  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

the  friendships  were  temporarily  clouded,  but  in  all  such 
cases  the  sun  rose  again,  and  the  friendships  were  renewed 
to  last  unto  death.  The  Circle  grew  steadily  year  by  year, 
and  each  new  friendship  was  cemented  as  the  old  ones  had 
been. 

It  was  his  sheer  joy  in  life,  his  frank,  heart}^,  wholly  un- 
spoiled outlook,  his  joyous  laugh,  yet  withal  his  realisation 
of  the  seriousness,  as  well  as  the  joy  of  life,  his  love  for 
human  nature  and  his  never-failing  determination  to  take  it 
at  its  best — these  were  the  qualities  that  won  for  him  such 
a  host  of  friends.  It  has  been  noted  that  he  was  the  domi- 
nating personality  in  all  this  great  company.  That  surely 
is  the  most  remarkable  fact  of  all.  He  was  not  simply  ad- 
mitted to  the  company  of  his  peers :  it  was  they  who  formed 
the  Dickens  Circle.  They  were  the  planets  and  stars  that 
circled  around  the  Dickens  sun.  Let  it  be  a  Christmas  party, 
a  game  of  leap-frog,  a  trip  to  Cornwall,  amateur  theatricals, 
a  public  dinner  to  Macready  or  Thackeray,  or  a  private 
dinner  to  Black — whatsoever  it  be,  if  Dickens  is  in  it  at  all, 
he  is  the  moving  spirit.  All  his  associates,  great  men  as 
well  as  lesser  men,  are  dominated  by  the  personality  of  this 
man  who,  in  social  upspring,  education,  and  all  that  usually 
counts  for  so  much,  was  their  inferior. 

It  is  no  conscious,  aggressive  domination  either;  it  is  just 
the  working  of  the  natural  law  wliich  forces  the  strong  man 
to  the  top.  He  had  learned  self-reliance  in  a  hard  school. 
All  he  had  achieved  was  due  absolutely  to  his  inborn  genius 
and  to  his  own  force  of  character.  He  had  faced  fearful 
odds  in  his  most  impressionable  years — the  years  during 
which  the  boy  begets  the  man.  He  had  conquered,  and  out 
of  the  fight  he  had  come  strong,  self-reliant,  clean-minded 
and  pure-hearted,  joyous  at  his  victory,  with  no  trace  of 
bitterness  in  him.  Those  early  struggles  had  made  him  what 
he  was.  They  had  had  some  ill-effects,  no  doubt,  but  the 
good  far  outweighed  the  ill,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five 
Dickens  sprang  before  the  world,  fully  equipped  to  take  and 
to  hold  his  place  among  men. 

Let  us  spend  a  short  time  in  the  Dickens  Circle.  Let  us 
see  the  man  in  the  company  of  his  friends.  Thus  shall  we 
come  to  know  him  better  even  than  we  know  him  now,  and 
to  love  him  more.     We  shall  see  him  the  j  oiliest  of  com- 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

panions  for  the  social  hour;  we  shall  see  him  the  kind  sym- 
pathetic friend  in  times  of  sorrow  and  of  sadness;  we  shall 
see  him  almost  womanly  in  his  tenderness  when  his  friends 
are  stricken ;  we  shall  see  him  ever  ready  to  prove  his  friend- 
ship at  whatsoever  sacrifice;  we  shall  see  him  winning  and 
holding  surely  the  whole-hearted  love  of  scores  of  men  who 
did  not  lightly  give  their  love ;  we  shall  find  that  he  was  indeed 
"the  ideal  of  friendship" — "the  good,  the  gentle,  high-gifted, 
ever  friendly,  noble  Dickens,  every  inch  of  him  an  honest 


CHAPTER  II 

FRIENDS  OF  BOYHOOD  AND  YQtrTH 

And  to  imitate  David  Copperfield,  and  begin  at  the  begin- 
ning, there  are  one  or  two  friends   of  the  novelist's  early 
years  who  certainly  must  have  mention.     First,  a  couple  of 
friends  of  his  bo^^hood.     Let  Bob  Fagin  have  pride  of  place. 
Scarcely  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  Dickens  Circle,  you  say. 
Well,  no;  but  a  friend  of  Dickens's  all  the  same,  a  friend  in 
the  darkest  days :  Bob  Fagin,  the  fellow-drudge  in  the  black- 
ing warehouse,  who,  when  a  third  drudge.  Poll  Green,  ob- 
jected to  the  future  novelist  being  treated  as  "the  young 
gentleman,"  "settled  him  speedily";  who,  when  "the  young 
gentleman"  was  one  day  taken  ill,  was  so  kind  to  him,  filled 
empty  blacking-bottles  with  hot  water,  and  applied  relays 
of  them  to  his  side  half  the  day,  and  when  it  came  towards 
evening,  refused  to  allow  him  to  go  home  alone.     "I  was  too 
proud  to  let  him  know  about  the  prison,"  Dickens  tells  us, 
"and  after  making  several  efforts  to  get  rid  of  him,  to  all 
of  which  Bob  Fagin  in  his  goodness  was  deaf,  shook  hands 
with  him  on  the  steps  of  a  house  near  Southwark  Bridge  on 
the   Surrey  side,  making  believe  that  I  lived  there.     As   a 
finishing   piece   of   reality,   in   case   of  his   looking  back,   I 
knocked  at  the  door,  and  asked,  when  the  woman  opened  it, 
if  that  w^as  Mr.  Robert  Fagin's  home."     Kind-hearted  Bob 
Fagin,  it  was  hardly' fair,  was  it.?  to  use  your  name  so  roughly 
in  after  years. 

Then  there  were  his  schoolfellows  at  Wellington  House 
Academy,  whither  he  went  when  the  days  of  drudgery  were 
over — Daniel  Tobin,  Henry  Danson,  Owen  R.  Thomas,  and 
Richard  Bray.  They  were  his  chief  associates  in  those  days 
when  the  sun  had  begun  to  shine  again.  That  the  young 
Dickens  made  some  impression  on  these  boyish  friends  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  Thomas  preserved  a  letter  which 


FRIENDS  OF  BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH    7 

the  future  Boz  wrote  to  him  when  he  was  between  thirteen 
and  fourteen  years  old. 

Writing  to  Forster  after  Dickens's  death,  Thomas  said: 
"  After  the  lapse  of  years  I  recognised  the  celebrated  writer 
as  the  individual  I  had  known  so  well  as  a  boy,  from  having 
preserved  this  note;  and  upon  Mr.  Dickens  visiting  Reading 
in  December  1854  to  give  one  of  his  earliest  readings,  .  .  . 
I  took  the  opportunity  of  showing  it  to  him,  v/hen  he  was 
much  diverted  therewith.  On  the  same  occasion  we  conversed 
about  mutual  schoolfellows,  and  among  others  Daniel  Tobin 
was  referred  to,  whom  I  remember  to  have  been  Dickens's 
most  intimate  companion  in  the  school-days  (1824  to  1826). 
His  reply  was  that  Tobin  either  was  then,  or  had  previously 
been,  assisting  him  in  the  capacity  of  amanuensis ;  but  there 
is  a  subsequent  mystery  about  Tobin,  in  connection  with  his 
friend  and  patron,  which  I  have  never  been  able  to  compre- 
hend; for  I  understood  shortly  afterwards  that  there  was  an 
entire  separation  between  them,  and  it  must  have  been  an 
offence  of  some  gravity  to  have  sundered  an  acquaintance 
formed  in  early  youth,  and  which  had  endured,  greatly  to 
Tobin's  advantage,  so  long." 

There  was  no  mystery  about  it.  "The  offence,"  says 
Forster,  "went  no  deeper  than  the  having  at  last  worn  out 
even  Dickens's  patience  and  kindness."  Forster  records  that 
he  could  recollect  Dickens  helping  this  old  schoolfellow  on 
many  occasions,  and  he  adds :  "His  applications  for  relief 
were  so  incessantly  repeated,  that  to  cut  him  and  them  adrift 
altogether  was  the  only  way  of  escape  from  what  had  become 
an  intolerable  nuisance." 

Danson,  who  became  a  physician,  also  recorded  at  For- 
ster's  request,  his  recollections  of  those  days,  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  he  remembered  that  the  boys  had  a  small 
club  for  the  lending  and  circulating  of  small  tales  written  by 
Dickens.  He  also  records  that  the  theatrical  instinct  was 
even  then  strong  in  Dickens.  The  boys  mounted  small  thea- 
tres, and  got  up  very  gorgeous  scenery  to  illustrate  "The 
Miller  and  his  Men"  (for  which  play  Dickens  retained  a 
curious  liking — I  had  nearly  written  affection — all  his  life) 
and  "Cherry  and  Fair  Star." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Dickens  made  no  lasting  friendship  at 
school,  though  Tobin  hung  on  to  him  for  years ;  but  with 


8  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

a  schoolfellow  of  his  brother's  he  did  form  a  friendship  that 
endured  till  the  end.  This  was  Thomas  Mitton,  who  was 
with  the  other  Dickens  boys  at  Mr.  Dawson's  school  in 
Hunter  Street,  Brunswick  Square.  Afterwards,  it  is  be- 
lieved, he  and  Charles  were  fellow-clerks  at  Mr.  MoUoj's  in 
New  Square,  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  Dickens  was  employed  for 
a  few  weeks  between  leaving  school  and  going  to  Mr.  Black- 
more's.  Mitton  stuck  to  the  law,  and  in  1838  we  find  him 
drafting  his  friend's  will.  And  so  late  as  June  13,  1865,  we 
find  a  letter  to  him  giving  a  full  account  of  the  Staplehurst 
accident. 

There  is  a  friend  who  should  be  mentioned  here,  though  he 
only  just  walks  across  the  stage,  as  it  were.  His  name  was 
Potter,  and  he  was  a  fellow-clerk  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Black- 
more,  attorney,  Gray's  Inn.  It  is  recorded  of  him  that  he 
did  much  to  stimulate  Dickens's  theatrical  tastes.  The  pair 
took  every  opportunity,  we  are  told  by  their  employer,  of 
going  together  to  a  minor  theatre,  where  they  not  infre- 
quently engaged  in  parts.  That  is  all  we  know  about  Potter, 
but  he  was  Dickens's  friend — or  shall  we  say  pal? — during  a 
very  interesting  and  not  at  all  unimportant  phase  of  the 
novelist's  life,  and  so  he  is  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  Circle. 

We  pass  on  to  the  next  period  in  the  career  of  Pichwick^s 
author.  In  the  big  Dickens  Circle  see  that  John  Black  is 
given  his  proper  place.  He  was  not  an  intimate  friend;  I 
suppose  he  and  Dickens  rarely  met  on  really  equal  terms ; 
but  Black  was  the  first  friend  who  influenced  Dickens's 
career  and  encouraged  him  when  he  could  as  yet  scarcely  have 
dreamed  of  future  fame.  "Dear  old  Black !  my  first  out-and- 
out  appreciator,"  Dickens  wrote  only  a  few  weeks  before  he 
died.  He  never  forgot  that  it  was  "this  good  old  mirth- 
loving  man"  who  flung  the  slipper  after  him,  as  lie  put  it, 
who  first  recognised  his  genius  and  encouraged  him.  For 
Black  was  Editor  of  the  "Morning  Chronicle"  when  young 
Dickens  was  a  reporter  on  that  paper,  and  Charles  Mackay, 
who  was  also  a  member  of  the  staff,  tells  us  that  he  repeat- 
edly heard  Black  predict  the  future  greatness  of  Charles 
Dickens.  Indeed,  says  Mackay,  it  was  because  he  had  heard 
his  Editor  say  this  so  often  that  he  begged  from  him  the 
letter  which  Dickens  wrote  proposing  to  write  for  the  paper 
the  Sketches  hy  Boz.     Dickens  was  an  unknown  man  with 


FRIENDS  OF  BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH    9 

no  worldly  prospects  when  he  became  a  member  of  Black's 
staff,  and  undoubtedly  he  owed  much  to  the  Editor,  who  was 
then  past  his  fiftieth  birthday.  He  alwaj^s  acknowledged  it 
and  paid  hearty  tribute.  In  that  well-known  speech  at  the 
dinner  of  the  Newspaper  Press  Fund  in  1865,  for  instance, 
in  which  he  recalled  some  of  his  journalistic  experiences,  he 
said:  "Returning  home  from  exciting  political  meetings  in 
the  country  to  the  waiting  press  in  London,  I  do  verily 
believe  I  have  been  upset  in  almost  every  description  of  vehicle 
known  in  this  country.  I  have  been,  in  my  time,  belated  in 
miry  by-roads,  towards  the  small  hours,  forty  or  fifty  miles 
from  London,  in  a  wheelless  carriage,  with  exhausted  horses 
and  drunken  postboys,  and  have  got  back  in  time  for  publi- 
cation, to  be  received  with  never-forgotten  compliments  by 
the  late  Mr.  Black,  coming  in  the  broadest  of  Scotch  from 
the  broadest  of  hearts  I  ever  knew."  And  I  have  already 
quoted  what  he  said  not  long  before  he  died.  After  he  gave 
up  journalism  he  saw  but  little  of  this  excellent  man,  but 
they  met  occasionally.  Black  proud  of  his  old  reporter, 
Dickens  loving  and  respecting  his  old  Editor  and  never  for- 
getting his  indebtedness  to  him.  In  IS'IS  Black  ceased  to 
be  Editor  of  the  "Morning  Chronicle,"  "in  circumstances," 
says  Forster,  "strongly  reviving  all  Dickens's  sympathies." 
The  novelist  wrote:  "I  am  deeply  grieved  about  Black.  Sorry 
from  my  heart's  core.  If  I  could  find  him  out,  I  would  go 
and  comfort  him  this  moment."  He  did  find  him  out,  and 
he  gladdened  his  old  Editor's  heart  by  arranging  in  his 
honour  a  dinner  at  Greenwich.  This  is  the  last  record  of  any 
meeting  between  the  two  men,  but  I  do  not  doubt  but  that 
they  did  meet  again,  for  Black  lived  another  twelve  years 
not  far  from  London. 

Two  of  Dickens's  colleagues  on  the  "Morning  Chronicle" 
were  Charles  Mackay  and  Thomas  Beard.  The  former  calls 
for  no  more  mention  than  he  has  already  had,  but  with  Beard 
a  very  close  friendship  was  formed,  which  lasted  right 
through  the  years  until  that  sad  day  in  June  1870.  Beard 
was  the  first  friend  he  made  when  he  entered  the  gallery; 
indeed,  he  was  the  only  friend  among  his  gallery  colleagues, 
for  Dickens  seems  to  have  kept  himself  very  much  to  himself 
in  those  days — a  curious  fact  in  view  of  his  great  capacity 
for  friendship  and  his  great  sociability  in  all  other  periods 


10  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

of  his  career.  Beard's  was  one  of  the  familiar  faces  at 
Twickenham  in  the  summer  of  1838 ;  he  was  present  at  the 
Haunted  Man  christening  dinner;  and  he  was  a  guest  at  the 
wedding  of  Kate  Dickens  to  Charles  Collins  in  1860;  whilst 
in  1862,  when  the  novelist  thought  of  going  to  America  for 
a  reading  tour,  he  proposed  to  his  old  friend  to  accompany 
him  as  secretary. 

There  is  one  famous  man  whose  place  is  in  tliis  chapter. 
He  is  Wentworth  Dilke,  grandfather  of  a  still  more  famous 
grandson.  He  knew  Dickens  in  the  blacking  warehouse  days. 
He  was  acquainted  with  the  future  novelist's  father,  with 
whom  he  one  day  visited  the  warehouse,  and  gave  the  young 
drudge  a  half-crown,  receiving  in  return  a  low  bow.  In  after 
years  Dilke  related  this  story  to  Forster,  who  mentioned  it 
to  Dickens.  "He  was  silent  for  several  minutes,"  says  the 
biographer.  "I  felt  that  I  had  unintentionally  touched  a 
painful  place  in  his  memory ;  and  to  Mr.  Dilke  I  never  spoke 
of  the  subject  again."  A  few  weeks  later  Dickens  referred 
to  the  matter,  however,  and  as  a  result  of  the  conversation 
that  followed,  related  the  whole  story  of  his  unhappy  boy- 
hood. So  that  it  is  to  Dilke  that  we  owe  the  knowledge  of  that 
experience  in  the  novelist's  boyhood  which  helps  us  so  much 
to  understand  the  whole  of  his  subsequent  career.  Through 
the  after  years  Dilke  remained  a  friend,  though  not  a  very 
intimate  one.  They  were  associated  in  connection  with  the 
Literary  Fund,  and  were  in  opposite  camps  in  respect  of  its 
management.  For  some  years,  says  Forster,  he  fought  un- 
successfully against  Dilke  in  this  matter,  but  there  was  no 
personal  feeling  in  the  struggle. 


CHAPTER  III 

WILLIAM  HARRISON  AINSWORTH 

Suddenly,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  Dickens  sprang  Into 
fame  as  the  author  of  Pickwick.  Previously,  however,  the 
Sketches  hy  Boz,  appearing  in  the  "Morning  Chronicle," 
had  attained  a  considerable  degree  of  popularity,  and  a  few 
of  the  more  discerning  had  read  into  them  the  promise  which 
was  so  soon  fulfilled.  Among  these  was  William  Harrison 
Ainsworth,  who  ascertained  the  identity  of  Boz,  advised  him 
to  publish  the  Sketches  in  book  form,  and  introduced  him  to 
a  publisher  and  to  an  illustrator.  There  is  something  odd  in 
the  fact  that  the  man  who  rendered  Dickens  two  of  the  great- 
est services  of  his  life,  has  almost  the  least  mention  of  any 
of  the  novelist's  friends  in  Forster's  book.  For  he  very 
materially  influenced  Dickens's  life.  He  was  not  only  the 
first  to  encourage  him  to  publish  a  book,  introducing  him  to 
publisher  and  illustrator — Macrone  and  George  Cruikshank 
— but  also  first  made  the  young  writer  and  John  Forstcr 
acquainted,  thus  bringing  about  one  of  the  most  memorable 
friendships  in  literary  history.  In  view  of  these  facts  one 
would  expect  to  find  him  filling  a  very  prominent  place  in  a 
biography  of  Dickens  from  the  pen  of  Forster.  Yet  he  is 
not  mentioned  more  than  about  half  a  dozen  times. 

The  explanation  is  that  though  Ainsworth  was  still  alive 
when  Forster  wrote  his  book,  he  had  completely  dropped  out 
of  the  old  circle,  and  was  almost  completely  forgotten. 
Further,  after  the  first  few  years  he  ceased  to  be  one  of 
Dickens's  really  intimate  friends.  In  the  beginning  he  was, 
undoubtedly,  and  up  to  the  late  'forties  he  was  still  welcomed 
as  a  pleasant  companion,  but  the  original  intimacy  disap- 
peared. The  truth  is,  I  think,  that  Ainsworth  had  not  those 
solid  qualities  of  friendship  that  Dickens  required,  and  found 
in  others.  But  in  his  early  manhood  he  must  have  been  a 
11 


12  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

striking  and  attractive  personality,  and,  in  addition,  he  was 
the  first  prominent  literary  man  with  whom  Dickens  asso- 
ciated on  level  tenns. 

Imagine  what  the  youthful  "Boz"  would  feel.  See  what 
his  boyhood  had  been.  See  how  he  had  passed  through  the 
successive  states  of  drudgery.  Then  he  writes  a  few 
"specials"  for  his  paper.  Imagine  liis  elation  when  he  dis- 
covers that  these  sketches  have  been  observed  by  no  less  a 
person  than  Harrison  Ainsworth,  the  novelist  who  has  re- 
cently taken  the  town  by  storm  with  "Rookwood"  and  that 
glorious  description  of  Dick  Turpin's  ride  to  York.  Is  it 
surprising  that  he  is  elated  by  the  honour  of  such  a  man's 
friendship.?  And  naturally  there  is  also  a  sense  of  indebted- 
ness to  Ainsworth  for  suggesting  and  facilitating  the  publi- 
cation of  the  sketches  in  book  form. 

And  so  for  a  time  the  two  young  novelists  are  close  friends 
and  constant  companions.  But  after  a  year  years,  as 
Dickens  steadily  establishes  himself  and  forms  a  circle  of 
famous  friends  around  him,  these  two  drift  apart,  until  the 
old  ties  are  severed  altogether,  and  they  live  on  through  year 
after  year  without  ever  meeting  at  all.  Ainsworth  seems  to 
have  lost  almost  all  his  friends  in  much  the  same  way.  Indeed, 
the  stor}^  of  his  life  makes  sad  reading,  for  it  is  a  tragic 
picture  that  it  presents  in  the  'seventies  of  the  old  man,  who 
thirty  years  before  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  stars  in  the 
London  firmament,  now  neglected  and  wellnigh  forgotten. 
"I  recall  a  dinner  at  Teddington  in  the  'sixties,"  says  Mr. 
Percy  Fitzgerald,  "given  by  Frederic  Chapman,  the  pub- 
lisher, at  which  were  Forster  and  Browning.  The  latter  said 
humorously:  'A  sad,  forlorn-looking  being  stopped  me  to- 
day, and  reminded  me  of  old  times.  He  presentl^^  resolved 
himself  into — whom  do  you  think? — Harrison  Ainsworth!* 
*Good  heavens!'  cried  Forster,  'is  he  still  alive?'"  That  is 
one  of  the  saddest  anecdotes  that  I  have  ever  read. 

In  the  early^  days,  however,  when  "Rookwood"  was  out- 
distanced in  popularity  onl}'  by  PicTi'wic'k  itself,  and  Forster 
was  just  beginning  that  career  which  was  to  make  him  one 
of  the  greatest  literary  forces  of  his  time,  we  may  be  sure 
that  none  of  the  three  ever  foresaw  the  day  when  one  should 
learn  with  surprise  that  another  was  still  alive.  It  was  at 
the   Christmas   of  1836   that  Dickens   and  Forster  met   at 


'<:HnA^id  (Yi^ 


iCliycyufc^  c^y^ 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  AINSWORTH     13 

Ainsworth's  house,  and  for  the  next  few  years  the  three  were 
inseparable.  Forster  does  not  tell  us  that  Ainsworth  took 
part  in  those  daily  ridings  which  are  recalled  with  the  sad- 
ness with  which  the  memory  of  the  happy  days  of  long  ago 
must  ever  be  tinged,  but  he  certainly  did.  Mr.  S.  M.  Ellis, 
in  his  delightful  book,  "William  Harrison  Ainsworth  and 
His  Friends,"  makes  that  quite  clear : 

"In  the  first  few  years  of  their  friendship  the  three 
were  devoted  to  horse  exercise,  and  Dickens  and  Forster 
would  ride  out  from  town  to  Kensal  Lodge  to  pick  up 
Ainsworth.  .  .  .  The  three  literati  would  gallop  off  for 
miles  into  the  lovely  country  that  stretched  away  to  the 
north  and  west.  Away  by  Twyford  Abbey  and  the 
clear,  winding  Brent  to  tiny  Perivale  and  Greenford, 
most  sylvan  of  hamlets,  through  the  green  vale  of  Mid- 
dlesex to  Ruislip,  and  home  by  Stanmore  and  Harrow. 
Or  another  day  away  across  breezy  Old  Oak  Common 
to  Acton,  stopping  for  a  few  minutes  at  Berrymead 
Priory  to  exchange  greetings  with  Bulwer  Lytton.  On 
through  Acton's  narrow  High  Street,  with  its  quaint 
raised  pavement  and  ancient  red-tiled  houses,  past 
'Fordhook,'  Fielding's  last  and  well-loved  home,  past 
Ealing's  parks  and  long  village  green,  round  through 
orchard-bordered  lanes  to  Chiswick,  with  its  countless 
memories,  and  so  by  Shepherd's  Bush  to  Wood  Lane  and 
the  Scrubbs,  home  again." 

Week-end  trips,  we  are  told,  were  also  frequently  indulged 
in  together,  and  in  view  of  the  undoubted  fact  that  there 
was  this  intimacy,  we  may,  with  Mr.  R.  Renton,^  echo  Mr. 
Ellis's  regret  that  Forster  "devotes  but  a  few  words  to  the 
social  or  convivial  phase  of  Dickens  in  these  first  glorious 
years  of  youth  and  fame.  He  barely  mentions  the  frequent 
rides  through  the  lovely  country  surrounding  the  suburbs  of 
London  which  Dickens  delighted  to  take  in  company  with 
his  two  intimates,  Forster  and  Ainsworth,  and  the  even  more 
frequent  dinings  and  festivities  the  trio  enjoyed  go  almost 
unrecorded." 

1  "John  Forster  and  his  Friendships." 


14  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

»TiS  true,  and  pity  'tis,  'tis  true.  The  only  direct  refer- 
ence he  makes  to  Ainsworth's  share  in  the  enjoyments  of 
those  days  is  when,  writing  of  the  summer  of  1838,  which 
Dickens  spent  at  Twickenham,  he  sa3^s:  "A  friend  now 
especially  welcome,  also,  was  the  novelist,  Mr.  Ainsworth, 
who  shared  with  us  incessantly  for  the  three  following  years 
in  the  companionship  which  began  at  his  house,  .  .  .  and 
to  whose  sympathy  in  tastes  and  pursuits,  accomplishments 
in  literature,  open-hearted  generous  ways,  and  cordial  hos- 
pitality, many  of  the  pleasures  of  later  years  were  due." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Dickens  was  at  Ainsworth's  house, 
Kensal  Lodge,  very  frequently  indeed,  and  we  are  told  that, 
"as  the  host's  most  intimate  friend,"  he  used  to  preside  at 
one  end  of  the  table.  Open  house  was  kept  at  Kensal  Lodge, 
but  still  more  was  this  the  case  when  Ainsworth  moved  to 
Kensal  Manor  House  in  1841. 

Ainsworth  was  one  of  the  company  at  the  dinner  to  cele- 
brate the  completion  of  Pickxcick,  of  which  he  received  a 
presentation  copy — one  of  the  three  specially-bound  copies 
sent  to  the  author  by  his  publishers,  as  witness  this  letter 
to  Forster: 

"Chapman  and  Hall  have  just  sent  me  .  .  .  three 
extra-super  bound  copies  of  Pickwick,  as  per  specimen 
enclosed.  The  first  I  forward  to  you,  the  second  I 
have  presented  to  our  good  friend  Ainsworth,  and  the 
third,  Kate  has  retained  for  herself." 

Of  the  Pickwick  dinner  Ainsworth  wrote  to  his  friend, 
James  Crossley: 

"On  Saturday  last  we  celebrated  the  completion  of 
The  Pickwick  Papers.  We  had  a  capital  dinner,  with 
capital  wine  and  capital  speeches.  Dickens,  of  course, 
was  in  the  chair.  Talfourd  was  the  Vice,  and  an  ex- 
cellent Vice  he  made.  .  .  .  Just  before  he  was  about  to 
propose  tJw  toast  of  the  evening  the  head  waiter — for 
it  was  at  a  tavern  that  the  carouse  took  place — entered, 
and  placed  a  glittering  temple  of  confectionery  on  the 
table,  beneath  the  canopy  of  which  stood  a  little  figure 
of  the  illustrious  Mr.  Pickwick.     This  was  the  work  of 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  AINSWORTH     15 

the  landlord.  As  you  may  suppose,  it  was  received  with 
great  applause.  Dickens  made  a  feeling  speech  in  reply 
to  the  Serjeant's  eulogy.  .  .  .  Just  before  dinner 
Dickens  received  a  cheque  for  £750  from  his  pubHshers." 

This  is  the  most  extended  account  of  the  dinner  that 
exists.  Ainsworth  continued  to  be  a  guest  at  these  christen- 
ing dinners  until  Domhey,  wliilst  Dickens  was  certainly 
present  at  the  "Tower  of  London"  dinner. 

Mr.  Ellis  points  out  that  Ainsworth  had  quite  a  marked 
influence  on  Dickens's  earlier  work.  Undoubtedly  it  was  the 
popularity  of  "Rookwood"  that  caused  Sam  Weller  to  select 
as  his  contribution  to  the  harmony  on  a  certain  occasion 
the  song,  "Bold  Turpin  vunce  on  Hounslow  Heath,"  and  it 
is  interesting  to  note  also  that  the  name  of  Turpin's  com- 
panion robber  was  Sikes.  But,  above  all,  it  was  to  Ains- 
worth that  Dickens  was  indebted  for  an  introduction  to  the 
brothers  Grant,  better  known  to  the  wide,  wide  world  as  the 
Cheeryble  Brothers.  That  Dickens  did  actually  meet  the 
Grants  is  now  established  beyond  any  doubt  at  all.  To 
James  Crossley,  on  October  31,  1838,  Ainsworth  wrote: 
"Dickens  has  just  started  for  Stratford-upon-Avon  and 
Chester,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Browne  (the  'Phiz'  of  Pick- 
wick  and  Nicklehy),  the  artist.  He  will  reach  Manchester 
on  Saturday,  I  believe.  On  Sunday  next  Forstcr  starts,  per 
railroad,  to  join  him,  and  I  suppose  on  Monday  they  will 
call  on  you,  as  they  are  armed  with  letters  of  introduction 
to  you.  Dickens's  object  is  to  see  the  interior  of  a  cotton 
mill — I  fancy  with  reference  to  some  of  his  publications.  I 
have  given  him  letters  to  G.  Winter  and  Hugh  Beaver." 

On  the  authority  of  one  of  Ainsworth's  daughters,  Dickens 
paid  this  visit  with  the  definite  object  of  meeting  the  Grants, 
as  well  as  of  seeing  the  inside  of  a  cotton  mill.  Ainsworth 
had  known  them  when  he  was  a  boy,  for  Manchester  was  his 
native  city,  and  he  had  described  them  to  his  friend.  He 
now  gave  Mr.  Winter  a  hint,  and  that  gentleman  arranged 
a  dinner  to  which  Dickens  and  the  Grants  were  invited.  And 
so  Ainsworth  rendered  a  further  great  service  to  Dickeiio 
and  to  the  world  at  large. 

During  this  visit  to  Manchester  the  three  friends  went  out 
to  Cheadle  Hall,  Cheshire,  in  order  to  see  Ainsworth's  three 


16  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

little  girls,  who  were  at  boarding-schooHhere,  and  they  "took 
with  them  three  books,  duly  inscribed*  and  autographed,  to 
present  to  the  three  little  girls,  who  had  never  seen  their 
visitors  before." 

In  1839  Ainsworth  had  the  gratification  of  visiting  his 
native  city  in  company  with  his  famous  friend,  and  of  being 
entertained  by  the  citizens  at  dinner.  The  position  must  have 
been  an  embarrassing  one  for  him,  as  the  following  extract 
from  a  letter  to'Crossley  snows : 

"Now,  in  respect  of  the  public  dinner.  Is  it  to  be 
given  to  me  or  Dickens — or  to  both?  Acting  upon 
your  former  letter,  I  invited  my  friend  to  accompany 
mie,  imagining  the  dinner  was  to  be  given  in  my  honour ; 
but  I  have  no  feeling  whatever  in  the  matter,  and  only 
desire  to  have  a  distinct  understanding  about  it.  If 
the  dinner  is  given  expressly  to  Dickens,  I  think  a  letter 
of  invitation  should  be  sent  him.  But  you  are  the  best 
judge  of  the  propriety  of  this  step;  and  it  might  be 
only  giving  needless  trouble,  as  he  is  sure  to  come  if  the 
dinner  is  to  be  given  to  me." 

The  spirit  reflected  by  this  letter  is  excellent.  The  truth 
appears  to  be  that  Ainsworth  had  been  originally  invited,  and 
that  he  had  invited  Dickens  to  accompany  him,  and  the  citi- 
zens of  Manchester  rather  allowed  the  glory  of  "Boz"  to 
eclipse  the  glory  of  Ainsworth.  But  the  latter  was  devoid 
of  jealousy,  and  he  was  quite  willing  that  the  greater  honour 
should  go  to  his  friend,  whose  genius  he  readily  and  frankly 
recognised.  Needless  to  say,  Forster  kept  them  company  on 
this  visit.  The  three  friends  stayed  with  Mr.  Hugh  Beaver, 
at  the  Temple,  Chectham  Hill.  They  arrived  in  Manchester 
on  Saturday,  January  12.  On  the  Monday  the  public  dinner 
was  held,  followed,  on  the  Tuesday,  by  a  dinner  at  Crossley's 
house,  and  on  the  Wednesday  by  a  dinner  at  Winter's  house. 

One  doubts  if  throughout  his  long  life  there  was  any  inci- 
dent upon  which  Ainsworth  looked  back  with  so  much  grati- 
fication as  this  visit  to  Manchester.  To  return  to  his  native 
city  a  famous  man,  and  to  be  feted  by  the  citizens,  was  in 
itself  a  notable  and  pleasing  event,  but  to  be  accompanied  by 
and  feted  in  company  with  the  most  popular  writer  of  his 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  AINSWORTH      17 

time — whom  he  would  call  "friend" — it  must  have  been  a 
proud  day  indeed  for  him. 

At  about  this  time  Dickens  and  Ainsworth  had  an  inter- 
esting scheme  in  hand  which  was  destined  not  to  fructify.  "I 
think  I  have  told  you,"  the  latter  wrote  to  Crossley,  "that 
Dickens  and  I  ai'e  about  to  illustrate  ancient  and  modern 
London  in  a  Pickwick  form.  We  expect  much  from  this." 
It  would  have  been  an  almost  ideal  collaboration.  Who  could 
have  dealt  with  ancient  London  so  well  as  he  who  was  to  write 
"The  Tower  of  London"  and  "Old  Saint  Paul's,"  and  who 
could  have  dealt  with  modern  London  so  delightfully  as  the 
author  of  Sketches  by  Boz  and  Pickwick?  But  the  scheme 
was  abandoned,  and  this  is  the  only  reference  to  it  that  exists. 

There  is  no  need  to  deal  here  with  Dickens's  dispute  with 
Macrone.  Ainsworth  had  nought  to  do  with  it,  except  that 
he  was  naturally  interested  and  sorry  that  the  unpleasant- 
ness should  have  arisen  between  the  publisher  and  the  author 
whom  he  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  together.  There 
was,  however,  real  danger  of  a  rupture  between  the  two 
novelists,  arising  out  of  Dickens's  dispute  with  Bentley  in 
1839,  which  led  to  Ainsworth  succeeding  Dickens  as  Editor 
of  "Bentley's  Miscellany."  A  rumour  got  abroad  to  the  effect 
that  Forster  had  persuaded  Dickens  to  break  his  agreement 
with  the  publisher,  and  Dickens  wrote  a  letter  to  Ainsworth 
from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"If  the  subject  of  this  letter,  or  anything  contained 
in  it,  should  eventually  become  the  occasion  of  any  dis- 
agreement between  you  and  me,  it  would  cause  me  very 
deep  and  sincere  regret.  But  with  this  contingency — 
even  this  before  me — I  feel  that  I  must  speak  out  with- 
out reserve,  and  that  every  manly,  honest,  and  just  con- 
sideration impels  me  to  do  so.  By  some  means  .  .  . 
the  late  negotiations  between  yourself,  myself,  and  Mr. 
Bentley  have  placed  a  mutual  friend  of  ours  in  a  false 
position,  and  one  in  which  he  has  no  right  to  stand,  and 
exposed  him  to  an  accusation  .  .  .  equally  untrue  and 
undeserved.  .  .  .  However  painful  it  will  be  to  put 
myself  in  communication  once  again  with  Mr.  Bentley, 
and  openly  appeal  to  you  to  confirm  what  I  shall  tell 
him,  there  is  no  alternative,  unless  you  will  frankly  and 


18  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

openl}^  and  for  the  sake  of  your  old  friend,  as  well  as 
very  intimate  and  valued  one,  avow  to  Mr.  Bentley  your- 
self that  he  (Forster)  is  not  to  blame.  .  .  .  Believe 
me,  Ainsworth,  that  for  your  sake,  no  less  than  on 
Forster's  account,  this  should  be  done.  .  .  .  I  do  not 
mean  to  hurt  or  offend  you  by  anything  I  have  said, 
and  I  should  be  truly  grieved  to  find  that  I  have  done 
so.    But  I  must  speak  strongly,  because  I  feel  strongly." 

Happily  the  affair  ended  amicabl}'',  and  there  was  no 
breach  between  the  friends.  This  letter  (which  is  given  in 
full  in  Mr.  Ellis's  book)  was  written  in  March  1839.  A 
month  earlier  Dickens  had  handed  over  the  Editorship  of  the 
"Miscellany"  to  Ainsworth  in  the  following  words :  "In  fact, 
then,  my  child,  you  have  changed  hands.  Henceforth  I  resign 
you  to  the  guardianship  and  protection  of  one  of  my  most 
intimate  and  valued  friends,  Mr.  Ainsworth,  with  whom,  and 
with  you,  my  best  wishes  will  ever  remain."  ^ 

In  1842  Ainsworth  was  one  of  the  party  that  gathered  at 
Greenwich  to  welcome  Dickens  home  from  America.  After 
that,  references  to  meetings  of  the  two  novelists  are  very 
few  indeed.  In  1847  Ainsworth,  during  a  Continental  tour, 
met  Dickens  at  Lausanne,  and  the  latter  wrote  to  Forster: 
"I  breakfasted  with  him  at  the  Hotel  Gibbon  next  morning. 
.  .  .  We  walked  about  all  day,  talking  of  our  old  days  at 
Kensal  Lodge."  Those  old  days  were  not  forgotten,  but 
times  had  changed,  and  the  two  men  who  once  saw  one 
another  almost  daily  now  but  rarelv  met.  There  was  in  each 
a  sentiment  for  the  "day  that  is  dead,"  however,  and  in  1849 
Dickens  did  a  very  graceful  thing  when  he  invited  Ainsworth 
to  act  as  godfather  to  his  sixth  son  (now  Mr.  Henry  Field- 
ing Dickens,  K.C.).  Four  years  later  Ainsworth  gave  up 
Kensal  Manor  House,  and  those  glorious  reunions  were  once 
for  all  ended. 

The  last  record  of  any  meeting  between  Dickens  and  Ains- 
worth is  in  June  1C54,  when  the  latter,  who  had  gone  to  live 
in  Brighton,  came  up  to  London  expressly  to  meet  some  of 
his  old  friends.  Thackeray  tried  to  effect  a  reunion  in  1857. 
He  proposed  a  dinner  at  which  Dickens,  Ainsworth,  Maclise, 

>  "Familiar  Epietle  from  a  Parent  to  a  Child." 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  AINSWORTH     19 

and  himself  should  meet  once  more  and  live  again  the  old, 
far-off  happy  days.  But  his  efforts  failed.  "Ainsworth  and 
*Boz'  won't  come,"  he  wrote  to  Maclisc,  "and  press  for  delay. 
Well,  then,  although  I  know,  from  the  state  of  the  banker's 
account  at  present,  next  week  there  will  probably  be  about 
five  shillings  wherewith  to  buy  a  dinner,  yet  let  them  have 
their  will.  Something  tells  me  that  it  may  be  long  before 
the  banquet  in  question  takes  place — but  it  is  their  wish — 
so  be  it.  The  greatest  of  all  the  names  of  Allah  (Goethe 
says)  is  'Amen.'  "  And  he  wrote  to  Ainsworth:  "Here  comes 
a  note  from  Dickens,  who  begs,  too,  for  a  remission  of  the 
dinner.  As  I  can't  have  it  without  my  two  roaring  animals, 
and  the  play  wouldn't  be  worth  coming  to  with  the  part  of 
Hamlet  omitted,  the  great  Titmarsh  Banquet  is  hereby  post- 
poned, to  be  held  on  some  other  occasion,  however,  with  un- 
common splendour." 

Thackeray's  forebodings  were  realised,  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  two  friends  who  had  been  so  intimate  in  the  first 
days  of  popularity  and  success,  did  not  meet  for  some  years 
prior  to  Dickens's  death.  For  on  July  7,  1870,  Ainsworth 
wrote  to  Charles  Kent :  "I  was  greatly  shocked  by  the  sudden 
death  of  poor  Dickens.  I  have  not  seen  liim  of  late  years, 
but  I  always  hoped  that  we  might  meet  again,  as  of  old." 

The  tone  of  this  letter  certainly  suggests  that  there  had 
been  an  estrangement,  and  the  impression  is  confirmed  by 
Thackeray's  note  to  Maclise  just  quoted:  "Ainsworth  and 
'Boz'  won't  come."  There  is  no  direct  evidence  of  an  es- 
trangement, however,  and  for  memory's  sake — the  memory 
of  those  joyous  early  years — one  hopes  that  the  impression  is 
false. 


CHAPTER  IV 

GEORGE    CRUIKSHANK 

It  must  have  been  a  red-lcttcr  day  for  the  obscure  young 
newspaper  reporter  on  which  he  learned  that  his  first  book 
was  to  be  illustrated  by  the  great  George  Cruikshank.  For 
George  was  famous  before  Dickens  had  left  school,  and  in 
1837  he  was  the  most  famous  illustrator  of  the  day.  For 
an  unknown  author  to  have  his  name  on  the  title-page  of 
his  book  was  a  guarantee  against  failure.  Sam  Weller  came 
into  being  almost  simultaneously  with  the  publication  of  the 
Sketches,  so  that  Dickens  did  not  owe  so  much  to  the  artist 
as  he  might  have  done,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  first 
real  distinction  that  he  ever  had  was  that  of  having  a  book 
illustrated  by  the  great  George  Cruikshank.  And  we  may 
regard  it  as  likely  that  he  would,  in  a  sense,  be  "carried 
away"  by  this  personal  acquaintance  with  one  whose  name 
had  been  a  household  word  when  he  was  a  boy.  But  after 
a  while  he  began  to  make  other  and  better  friends,  and  grad- 
ually he  became  less  enthusiastic  about  Cruikshank  and  about 
Ainsworth  too.  I  think  we  are  justified  in  assuming  this. 
It  implies  no  reproach  to  the  novelist.  To  put  it  in  some- 
what colloquial  language,  whilst  Cruikshank  was  a  distin- 
guished man  to  be  on  intimate  terms  with,  and  whilst  he  was 
all  very  well  as  a  companion  on  a  convivial  evening — at  a 
Greenwich  or  Richmond  dinner,  shall  we  say? — Uttle  of 
his  company  would  go  a  very  long  way. 

For  the  Sketches  sixteen  illustrations  were  done,  and  the 
artist  did  a  new  frontispiece  for  the  first  cheap  edition.  It 
should  be  noted  that  in  no  fewer  than  five  of  these  pictures, 
portraits  of  Dickens  appear.  In  the  title-page  of  the  sec- 
ond series,  both  author  and  artist  may  be  seen  waving  flags 
from  the  balloon ;  whilst  in  the  illustration  to  the  paper  on 
Public  Dinners  we  have  author,  artist,  and  publishers 
(Messrs.  Chapman  &  Hall).  It  was  at  about  tliis  time  also 
20 


GEORGE  CRUIKSHANK  21 

that  Cruikshank  drew  the  portrait  of  Boz  which  is  well  known 
to  Dickcnsians.  It  is  said  that  this  was  drawn  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment  at  a  meeting  of  the  Hook  and  Eye  Club. 

For  Oliver  Twist  as  it  ran  through  "Bcntley's  Miscellany" 
Cruikshank  did  twenty-four  etchings,  and  when  the  book  was 
published  in  ten  monthly  parts  in  1846  he  designed  the 
Avrapper. 

Here  is  the  place  to  refer  to  Cruikshank's  extraordinary 
claim  that  he  Avas  the  real  author  of  Oliver  Twist.  It  was 
Shelton  Mackenzie  who  first  gave  publicity  to  tlie  claim  in 
his  Life  to  Dickens,  published  in  America,  shortly  after  the 
novelist's  death.  He  said  that  Cruikshank  made  the  asser- 
tion to  him  in  1847.  Forster,  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Life 
of  Dickens,  gave  it  the  lie  direct,  whereupon  the  artist  wrote 
a  letter  to  "The  Times"  in  which  he  said : 

"Wlien  'Bentley's  Miscellany'  was  started,  it  was  ar- 
ranged that  Mr.  Dickens  should  write  a  serial  in  it,  and 
which  was  to  be  illustrated  by  me ;  and  in  a  conversation 
with  liim  as  to  what  the  subject  should  be  for  the  first 
serial,  I  suggested  to  Mr.  Dickens  that  he  should  write 
the  life  of  a  London  boy,  and  strongly  advised  him  to 
do  this,  assuring  him  that  I  would  furnish  him  with 
the  subject  and  supply  him  with  all  the  characters, 
which  my  large  experience  of  London  life  would  enable 
me  to  do." 

And  then,  after  retelling  Shelton  Mackenzie's  circumstan- 
tial story,  he  said:  "Without  going  any  further,  I  think  it 
will  be  allowed  from  what  I  have  stated  that  I  am  the  origi- 
nator of  Oliver  Twist,  and  that  all  the  principal  characters 
are  mine."  Supposing  it  to  have  been  true,  there  was  no 
reason  why  Cruikshank  should  not  have  been  given  the  full 
credit  of  having  suggested  the  general  outline  of  the  plot, 
and  provided  the  ideas  for  the  leading  characters.  Shake- 
speare did  not  invent  all  his  plots.  But  it  was  not  true,  and 
Forster  was  able  to  prove  it.  He  published  in  facsimile  the 
following  letter  of  Dickens's,  written  to  the  artist  in  1838: 

**My  dear  Cruikshaik, 

"I  returned  suddenly  to  town  yesterday  after- 
noon to  look  at  the  latter  pages  of  Oliver  Twist  before 


2£  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

it  was  delivered  to  the  booksellers,  when  I  saw  the 
jnajority  of  the  plates  in  the  last  volume  for  the  first 
time.^ 

"With  reference  to  the  last  one — Rose  Maylie  and 
Oliver — without  entering  into  the  question  of  great 
haste  or  any  other  cause  which  may  have  led  to  its  being 
what  it  is — I  am  quite  sure  there  can  be  little  difference 
of  opinion  between  us  with  respect  to  the  result.  May 
I  ask  you  whether  you  will  object  to  designing  this  plate 
afresh  and  doing  so  at  once,  in  order  that  as  few  im- 
pressions as  possible  of  the  present  one  may  go  forth? 

"I  feel  confident  you  know  me  too  well  to  feel  hurt 
by  this  inquiry,  and  with  equal  confidence  in  you,  I  have 
lost  no  time  in  preferring  it,'* 

And,  as  all  the  world  knows,  the  plate  was  designed  afresh. 
And  yet  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Artist  and  the  Author," 
which  Cruikshank  published  in  1872,  he  had  the  effrontery  to 
say: 

".  .  .1,  the  artist,  suggested  to  the  author  of  those 
works  the  original  idea,  or  subject,  for  them  to  write 
out — furnishing,  at  the  same  time,  the  principal  char- 
acters and  the  scenes.  And  then,  as  the  tale  had  to  be 
produced  in  monthly  parts,  the  writer,  or  author,  and 
the  artist,  had  every  month  to  arrange  and  settle  what 
scenes,  or  subjects,  and  characters  were  to  be  intro- 
duced, and  the  author  had  to  weave  in  such  scenes  as  I 
wished  to  represent." 

If  further  evidence  had  been  wanted  of  the  falsity  of  this 
claim,  it  was  provided  in  an  article  which  appeared  in  the 
"Strand  Magazine"  in  August  1897,  on  "Some  Unpublished 
Sketches  by  George  Cruikshank."  One  of  these  sketches  rep- 
resented Bill  Sikes  in  the  condemned  cell,  the  burglar  being 
depicted  in  practically  the  identical  attitude  in  which  Fagin 
appears  in  the  famous  illustration.  And  yet,  according  to 
Shelton  Mackenzie,  it  was  the  drawing  of  Fagin  in  the  con- 
demned cell  which  first  attracted  Dickens.     Mackenzie  wrote 

1  These  italics  are  my  own. 


GEORGE  CRUIKSHANK  23 

that  Cruikshank  told  him  that  Dickens  dropped  in  at  his 
studio  one  day  and  ferreted  out  a  bundle  of  drawings.  "When 
he  came  to  that  one,  which  represents  Fagin  in  the  condemned 
cell,  he  silently  studied  it  for  half  an  hour."  This  unfinished 
sketch  effectually  disposes  of  that  statement. 

And  yet  the  artist  persisted  in  it,  and  in  a  speech  at  a 
temperance  meeting  in  Manchester  in  1874  he  reiterated  the 
whole  story.  His  worst  enemies  never  accused  him  of  being  a 
rogue.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  he  really  had  brought 
himself  to  believe  this  monstrous  story.  Dickens  had  touched 
him  on  a  sore  spot  several  times,  also.  The  novelist  had  been 
one  of  his  most  doughty  opponents  on  the  teetotal  question, 
and  it  is  conceivable  that  he  had  hurt  the  artist's  dignity 
in  another  way.  That  is  to  say,  I  think  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  Dickens  had  rather  "cold  shouldered"  him  in  the 
last  twenty  years  of  his  life.  But  this  is  not  enough,  for 
Cruikshank  also  claimed  to  have  been  the  practical  author 
of  several  of  Harrison  Ainsworth's  novels.  Indeed  he  claimed 
almost  as  much  for  himself  as  the  less  reasoning  Baconians 
claim  for  their  hero.  In  very  truth,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that  his  mind  was  none  too  well  balanced  in  his  old  age. 

In  the  Manchester  speech  to  which  I  have  referred,  Cruik- 
shank remarked  that  Dickens  was  a  great  enemy  of  teetotal 
doctrines,  and  that  he  called  its  advocates  "Old  Hogs."  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  he  called  them  "Whole  Hogs,"  and  in 
Household  Words,  August  23,  1851,  he  had  an  article  with 
that  title,  in  which  he  put  it  to  those  who  listened  to  these 
people 

"whether  they  have  any  experience  or  knowledge  of  a 
good  cause  that  was  ever  promoted  by  such  bad  means? 
Whether  they  ever  heard  of  an  association  of  people, 
deliberately,  by  their  chosen  vessels,  throwing  overboard 
every  effort  but  their  own,  made  for  the  amelioration 
of  the  conditions  of  men,  unscrupulously  villifying  all 
other  labourers  in  the  vineyard;  calumniously  setting 
down  as  aiders  and  abettors  of  an  odious  vice  which 
they  know  to  be  held  in  general  abhorrence,  and  con- 
signed to  general  shame,  the  great  compact  mass  of  the 
community — of  its  intelligence,  of  its  morality,  of  its 
earnest  endeavour  after  better  things.'*     If,  upon  con- 


M  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

sidcration,  they  know  of  no  such  other  case,  then  the 
inquiry  will  perhaps  occur  to  them,  whether,  in  support- 
ing a  so-conducted  cause  they  really  be  upholders  of 
Temperance,  dealing  with  words,  which  should  be  the 
signs  for  Truth,  according  to  the  truth  that  is  in  them?" 

Two  years  later  Dickens  had  another  tilt,  and  this  time  at 
Cruikshank  personally.  This  took  the  form  of  an  article 
entitled  Frauds  on  the  Fairies,  which  also  appeared  in  House- 
hold Words.  Cruikshank  had  rewritten  certain  fairy  tales  as 
Temperance  tracts,  and  Dickens  resented  such  "frauds  on  the 
fairies." 

He  satirised  it  with  the  story  of  Cinderella  "  'edited'  by 
one  of  these  gentlemen  doing  a  good  stroke  of  business  and 
having  a  rather  extensive  mission."  It  was  excellent,  and 
perfectly  legitimate  criticism,  but  Cruikshank  did  not  like 
it,  and  he  replied  in  his  magazine  with  "A  letter  from  Hop-o'- 
my-thumb  to  Charles  Dickens,  Esq."  But  the  blow  had  gone 
home,  and  his  "Fairy  Library"  did  not  last  long. 

,  It  should  be  added  that  in  1848  Dickens  wrote  a  criticism 
of  the  artist's  series  of  plates,  "The  Drunkard's  Children," 
the  sequel  to  "The  Bottle."  The  criticism,  which  appeared 
in  "The  Examiner,"  opened  with  "a  few  words  by  way  of 
gentle  protest" : 

"Few  men  have  a  better  right  to  erect  themselves  into 
teachers  of  the  people  than  Mr.  George  Cruikshank. 
Few  men  have  observed  the  people  as  he  has  done,  or 
know  them  better;  few  are  more  earnestly  and  honestly 
disposed  to  teach  them  for  their  good;  and  there  are 
very  few  artists,  in  England  or  abroad,  who  can  ap- 
proach him  in  his  peculiar  and  remarkable  power.  But 
this  teaching,  at  last,  must  be  fairly  conducted.  It  must 
not  be  all  on  one  side.  When  IMr.  Cruikshank  shows  us, 
and  shows  us  so  forcibly  and  vigorously,  that  side  of 
the  metal  on  which  the  people  in  their  crimes  and  faults 
are  stamped,  he  is  bound  to  help  us  to  a  glance  at  that 
other  side  on  which  the  government  that  forms  the 
people,  with  all  its  faults  and  vices,  is  no  less  plainly 
impressed.  Drunkenness,  as  a  national  horror,  is  the 
effect  of  many  causes.  ...  It  would  be  as  sound  philos- 


GEORGE  CRUIKSHANK  25 

ophy  to  issue  a  series  of  plates  under  the  title  of  the 
Physic  Bottle,  or  the  Saline  Mixture,  and,  tracing  the 
history  of  typhus  fever  by  such  means,  to  refer  it  all 
to  the  gin-shop,  as  it  is  to  refer  Drunkenness  there  and 
to  stop  there.  Drunkenness  does  not  begin  there.  .  .  . 
The  hero  of  the  bottle,  and  father  of  these  children, 
lived  in  undoubted  comfort  and  good  esteem  until  he 
was  some  five-and-thirty  years  of  age,  when,  happening 
unluckily  to  have  a  goose  for  dinner  one  day  ...  he 
jocularly  sent  out  for  a  bottle  of  gin  and  persuaded 
his  wife  ...  to  take  a  little  drop,  after  the  stuffing, 
from  which  moment  the  family  never  left  off  drinking 
gin,  and  rushed  downhill  to  destruction  very  fast.  Enter- 
taining the  highest  respect  for  Mr.  Cruikshank's  great 
genius,  and  no  less  respect  for  his  motives  in  these 
publications,  we  deem  it  right,  on  the  appearance  of  a 
sequel  to  'The  Bottle,'  to  protest  against  this." 

Cruikshank,  extremist  that  he  was,  could  hardly  have  felt 
very  friendly  toward  Dickens,  in  view  of  these  numerous  lusty 
blows  that  the  latter  dealt  him. 

In  addition  to  Sketches  by  Boz  and  Oliver  Twist,  Cruik- 
shank illustrated  The  Public  Life  of  Mr.  Tulrumble,  and  the 
Mudfrog  Papers;  whilst  he  also  did  an  etching  for  The 
Lamplighter's  Story,  which  was  Dickens's  contribution  to 
"The  Pic-nic  Papers,"  published  for  the  benefit  of  Macrone's 
widow.  He  also  illustrated  the  Life  of  Grimaldi,  which 
Dickens  edited.  Thus  all  his  artistic  relations  with  Dickens 
were  confined  to  the  latter's  very  earliest  years  of  fame.  But 
in  those  early  years  the  pair  met  prett}'^  often,  and  they  often 
dined  at  each  other's  house.  Cruikshank  formed  one  of  the 
company  at  the  Greenwich  dinner  at  which  Dickens's  friends 
welcomed  him  home  from  America  in  1842 — the  dinner  of 
which  the  novelist  wrote  to  Prof.  Felton  as  follows :  "I  wish 
you  had  been  at  Greenwich  the  other  day,  when  a  party  of 
friends  gave  me  a  private  dinner ;  public  ones  I  have  refused. 

C was  perfectly  wild  at  the  reunion,  and  after  singing 

all  manner  of  marine  songs,  wound  up  the  entertainment  by 
coming  home  (six  miles)  in  a  little  open  phaeton  of  mine, 
on  his  head,  to  the  mingled  delight  and  indignation  of  the 
metropolitan  police.     We  were  very  jovial,  indeed;  and  I 


26  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

assure  you  that  I  drank  your  health  with  fearful  vigour  and 
energy."  There  was  only  one  member  of  the  company  on 
that  occasion  whose  name  began  with  C.  "We  were  very 
jovial."  No  doubt  they  were,  but  whilst  Dickens  could  enjoy 
this  sort  of  thing  once  in  a  while,  he  did  not  care  about  it 
too  frequently.     Cruikshank  did  in  those  days. 

It  only  remains  to  be  noted  that  the  artist  was  associated 
with  the  early  amateur  dramatic  performances.  He  took 
Stanfield's  place  in  the  performances  at  Miss  Kelly's  theatre 
in  1845,  and  he  again  had  a  part  in  the  performances  in  aid 
of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole  in  1847.  But  he  was  a  very 
ordinary  actor.  Chosen  as  a  stop-gap,  he  could  not  be  got 
rid  of  afterwards.  For  we  find  Dickens  writing  to  Forster: 
"I  make  a  desperate  effort  to  get  C.  to  give  up  his  part. 
Yet  in  spite  of  all  the  trouble  he  gives  me  I  am  sorry  for 
him,  he  is  so  evidently  hurt  by  his  own  sense  of  not  doing 
well.  He  clutched  the  part,  however,  tenaciously;  and  three 
weary  times  we  dragged  through  it  last  night." 

We  find  Cruikshank  prominently  mentioned  in  the  bur- 
lesque account  of  the  tour  of  1847,  supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  Mrs.  Gamp,  which  Forster  prints. 

Dickens  intended  that  the  artist  members  of  the  company 
should  illustrate  this  account  of  the  trip,  but  they  backed 
out  for  some  unexplained  reason,  and  the  thing  was  never 
carried  through.  But  one  drawing  has  been  preserved.  It 
is  by  Cruikshank,  and  was  published  in  the  "Strand  Maga- 
zine" for  August  1897.  It  illustrates  the  scene  in  which  he 
himself  is  supposed  to  be  addressing  Mrs.  Gamp,  and  depicts 
him  raising  his  hat  in  the  most  polite  manner. 


CHAPTER  V 

WILLIAM    CHAELES    MACEEADT 

We  have  seen  that  Dickens  met  Forster  at  Christmas 
1836.  Six  months  later  Forster  gave  his  new  friend  one  of 
the  greatest  joys  of  his  life.  Under  date  June  16,  1837, 
William  Charles  Macready  records  in  his  diary :  "Forster  ^ 
came  into  my  room  with  a  gentleman  whom  he  introduced 
as  Dickens,  alias  Boz.  I  was  glad  to  see  him."  And  the 
Editor  of  the  Diary  truthfully  comments:  "Thus  began  a 
friendship  of  the  happiest  and  most  genial  description  that 
was  only  terminated  by  Dickens's  death,  thirty-three  years 
afterward." 

And  the  fact  is  certainly  worthy  of  note.  One  needs  only 
to  read  Macready's  Diary  to  know  that  he  was  not  the 
easiest  man  in  the  world  to  get  on  with.  Browning  described 
him  as  one  of  the  most  admirable  and  fascinating  characters 
he  had  ever  known,  and  Sala's  description  of  him  as  "high- 
minded,  generous,  just,"  was  perfectly  accurate,  but  his  quick 
and  violent  temper  tried  the  patience  of  his  friends  very 
often.  With  nearly  every  one  of  them  he  quarrelled  at  some 
time  or  another,  and  most  of  them  come  in  for  emphatic  refer- 
ence in  his  Diary.  But  never  Dickens.  He  never  had  a  mis- 
word  with  his  friend,  who  is  never  referred  to  but  in  terms 
of  affection.  The  novelist's  frankness,  geniality,  and  gene- 
rosity seem  to  have  exercised  their  spell  over  him  always. 
And  Dickens,  on  the  other  hand,  saw  beneath  the  sometimes 
forbidding  exterior  of  his  friend  that  "high-minded,  generous, 
just  spirit"  which  was  the  real  man.  As  Forster  says:  "No 
swifter  or  surer  perception  than  Dickens's  for  what  was  solid 
and  beautiful  in  character;  he  rated  it  higher  than  intel- 
lectual effort,  and  the  same  lofty  place,  first  in  his  affection 

>  Forster  and  Macready  had  been  acquainted  since  1833,  when  they  had 
been  introduced  to  each  other  at  Edmund  Kean's  funeral. 
27 


28  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

and  respect,  would  have  been  Macready's"  if  he  head  not 
been  the  greatest  of  actors. 

For  each  other  as  artist  as  'well  as  man  they  had  the  high- 
est admiration.  "Wonderful  Dickens!"  exclaims  Macready 
very  often.  "He  is  a  great  genius !"  is  another  entry.  "As 
a  great  indulgence  and  enjoyment,  walked  out  to  call  on 
Dickens,"  he  writes  in  another  place;  and  when  one  of 
Dickens's  books  is  unkindly  reviewed  in  "The  Times"  we 
find  him  commenting :  "Read  the  paper,  in  which  was  a  most 
savage  attack  on  Dickens  and  his  last  book — The  Cricket — 
that  looks  to  me  like  a  heavy  and  remorseless  blow  of  an 
enemy  determined  to  disable  his  antagonist  by  striking  to 
maim  him  or  kill  if  he  can,  and  so  render  his  hostility  power- 
less.^ I  was  sorry  to  see  in  a  newspaper  so  powerful  as 
*The  Times'  an  attack  so  ungenerous,  so  unworthy  of  itself. 
.  Alas !  for  my  poor  dear  friend  Dickens !"  In  1847 
he  records  how,  on  going  to  see  Dickens  after  reading  Num- 
ber 5  of  Domhey,  "I  could  not  speak  to  him  for  sobs.  It 
is  indeed  most  beautiful;  it  is  true  genius"  and  in  October 
1850,  he  writes:  "Purchased  two  last  numbers  of  Copper- 
field  and  read  parts  of  each.  Was  very  much  affected  and 
very  much  pleased  with  them.     His  genius  is  very  great." 

That  Dickens  had  an  equally  high  opinion  of  INlacready's 
abilities  as  an  actor  is  shown  by  the  notices  he  wrote  for  the 
"Examiner"  of  his  friend's  performances  of  Lear  and  Bene- 
(]ict — performances  which  he  placed  on  the  highest  pinnacle, 
whilst  in  many  of  his  letters  are  to  be  found  eulogies  of  Mac- 
ready's acting. 

It  would  be  possible  to  give  many  quotations  showing  the 
regard  the  two  men  had  for  each  other  entirely  apart  from 
their  respective  arts.  From  that  first  meeting  in  1837  there 
sprang  up  a  heart-whole  affection.  From  boyhood  Dickens 
had  adored  INIacready,  and  when  at  last  he  achieved  success 
and  was  able  to  meet  the  object  of  his  idolatry  on  level 
terms,  none  of  his  ideals  was  destroyed.  The  friendship  which 
was  to  last  unbroken,  without  a  cloud  to  obscure  its  sun- 
shine, was  formed  at  once.  Within  a  month  Dickens  was 
revealing  to  Macready  his  plan  for  a  comedy  that  he  desired 
to    write    for    him.      The    suggestion,    which    arose    out    of 

>  The  reference  is  to  the  forthcoming  publication  of  the  "Dails'  News." 


WILLIAM  CHARLES  MACREADY       29 

Dickens's  desire  to  assist  his  friend's  Covent  Garden  enter- 
prise, was  taken  up  seriously,  and  towards  the  end  of  1838 
he  wrote  to  Macready:  "I  have  not  seen  you  for  the  past 
week,  because  I  hoped  when  we  next  met  to  bring  The  Lamp- 
lighter in  my  hand.  It  would  have  been  finished  by  this 
time,  but  I  found  myself  compelled  to  set  to  work  first  at 
Nicklehy.  ...  I  am  afraid  to  name  any  particular  day,  but 
I  pledge  myself  that  you  shall  have  it  this  month."  It  is 
obvious  that  this  letter,  which  is  not  dated,  is  wrongly  placed 
in  the  collection  of  Dickens's  "Letters."  It  follows  a  letter 
dated  December  12,  but  it  must  have  been  written  earlier 
than  that,  for  on  December  5  Macready  has  this  entry  in  his 
Diary:  "Dickens  brought  me  his  farce,  which  he  read  to  me. 
The  dialogue  is  very  good,  full  of  point,  but  I  am  not  sure 
about  the  meagreness  of  the  plot.  He  reads  as  well  as  an 
experienced  actor  would — he  is  a  surprising  man."  Six  days 
later  there  is  this  entry:  "Dickens  came  with  Forster  and 
read  his  farce.  There  was  manifest  disappointment.  It  went 
flatly;  a  few  ready  laughs,  but  generally  an  even  smile, 
broken  in  upon  by  the  horse-laugh  of  Forster,  the  most  in- 
discreet friend  that  ever  allied  himself  to  any  person.  .  .  . 
It  was  agreed  that  it  should  be  put  into  rehearsal,  and,  when 
nearly  ready,  should  be  seen  and  judged  of  by  Dickens."  On 
the  next  day,  however,  Macready  records  that  the  farce  is 
to  be  withdrawn,  and  a  day  or  two  later  we  have  this  entry: 
"Wrote  to  Bulwer,  and  to  Dickens  about  his  farce,  explain- 
ing to  him  my  motive  for  wishing  to  withdraw  it  and  my 
great  obligation  to  him.  He  returned  me  an  answer  which 
is  an  honour  to  him.  How  truly  delightful  it  is  to  meet  with 
high-minded  and  warm-hearted  men.  Dickens  and  Bulwer 
have  been  certainly  to  me  noble  specimens  of  human  nature." 
And  so  the  proposal  fell  through.  But  Dickens  was  still 
anxious  to  serve  his  friend  if  possible.  He  had  sent  Macready 
a  copy  of  The  Strange  Gentleman,  which  Harley  had  pro- 
duced at  Drury  Lane  a  year  or  two  before,  thinking  it 
"barely  possible  you  might  like  to  try  it."  "Believe  me," 
he  added,  "if  I  had  as  much  time  as  I  have  inclination,  I 
would  write  on  and  on,  farce  after  farce,  and  comed}'^  after 
comedy,  until  I  wrote  you  something  that  would  run.  You 
do  me  justice  when  you  give  me  credit  for  good  intentions, 
but  the  extent  of  my  goodwill  and  strong  and  warm  interest 


30  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

in  you  personally  and  your  great  undertaking,  you  cannot 
fathom  nor  express."  There  is  no  further  reference  to  this 
play  in  this  connection.  Macready  certainly  never  acted  in 
it.  A  month  earlier  Dickens  had  suggested  that  his  friend 
might  appear  in  a  version  of  Oliver  Twist,  but  Macready's 
comment  was:  "Nothing  can  be  kinder  than  this  generous 
intention  of  Dickens,  but  I  fear  it  is  not  acceptable."  He 
was  convinced  that  the  book  was  utterly  impracticable  for 
any  dramatic  purpose. 

Frequent  were  the  meetings  between  the  two  friends  in 
these  early  days,  and  on  November  18,  1837,  Macready  was 
one  of  the  company  that  gathered  at  the  Prince  of  Wales 
Tavern  to  celebrate  the  completion  of  Pickwick.  A  fort- 
night later  Macready  records  the  gift  to  him  by  Dickens  of  a 
copy  of  the  book. 

In  1839 — on  March  30 — Dickens  presided  at  a  dinner 
given  in  honour  of  Macready  by  the  members  of  the  Shake- 
speare Club,  of  which  they  were  both  members,  together  with 
Thackeray,  Talfourd,  Maclise,  Jerrold,  Stanfield,  etc.,  and 
Macready  tells  us  that  the  novelist's  "speech  in  proposing 
my  health  was  most  earnest,  eloquent,  and  touching.  It 
took  a  review  of  my  enterprise  at  Covent  Garden,  and 
summed  up  with  an  eulogy  on  myself  that  quite  overpowered 
me.  ...  I  rose  to  propose  Dickens's  health,  and  spoke  my 
sincere  opinion  of  him  as  the  highest  eulogy,  alluding  to  the 
verisimilitude  of  his  characters.  I  said  that  I  should  not  be 
surprised  at  receiving  the  offer  of  an  engagement  from 
Crummies  for  the  next  vacation."  Later  in  the  sam.e  year 
Dickens  was  one  of  the  speakers  at  a  public  banquet  given 
in  honour  of  Macready  on  the  occasion  of  the  termination 
of  his  Covent  Garden  management. 

When  the  announcement  of  the  actor's  impending  retire- 
ment from  Covent  Garden  was  made,  Dickens  wrote  him  the 
following  delightful  letter: 

"I  ought  not  to  be  sorry  to  hear  of  your  abdication, 
but  I  am  .  .  .  for  my  own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of 
thousands  who  may  now  go  and  whistle  for  a  theatre — 
at  least,  such  a  theatre  as  you  gave  them ;  and  I  do  now 
in  my  heart  believe  that  for  a  long  and  dreary  time 
that  exquisite  delight  has  passed  away.    If  I  may  jest 


William  Charles  Macricauy 


WILLIAM  CHARLES  MACREADY       31 

:with  my  misfortunes,  and  quote  the  Portsmouth  critic 
of  Mr.  Crummles's  company,  I  say  that,  'As  an  exqui- 
site embodiment  of  the  poet's  visions  and  a  realisation 
of  human  intellectuaHty,  gilding  with  refulgent  light  our 
dreary  moments,  and  laying  open  a  new  magic  world 
before  the  mental  eye,  the  drama  is  gone — perfectly 
gone.' 

"With  the  same  perverse  and  unaccountable  feeling 
which  causes  a  broken-hearted  man  at  a  dear  friend's 
funeral  to  see  something  irresistibly  comical  in  a  red- 
nosed  or  one-eyed  undertaker,  I  receive  your  communi- 
cation with  ghostly  facetiousness ;  though  on  a  moment's 
reflection  I  find  better  cause  for  consolation  in  the  hope 
that,  relieved  from  your  most  trying  and  painful  duties, 
you  will  now  have  leisure  to  return  to  pursuits  more 
congenial  to  your  mind,  and  to  move  more  easily  and 
pleasantly  among  your  friends.  In  the  long  catalogue 
of  the  latter  there  is  not  one  prouder  of  the  name,  or 
more  grateful  for  the  store  of  delightful  recollections 
you  have  enabled  him  to  heap  up  from  boyhood, 
than  ..." 

And  he  thus  referred  to  the  event  in  a  letter  to  L'aman 
Blanchard:  "Macready  has,  as  Talfourd  remarked  in  one  of 
his  speeches,  'cast  a  new  grace  round  joy  and  gladness,  and 
rendered  mirth  more  holy!'  Therefore  we  are  preparing 
crowns  and  wreaths  here  to  shower  upon  the  stage  when  that 
sad  curtain  falls  and  kivers  up  Shakespeare  for  years  to 
come.  I  try  to  make  a  joke  of  it,  but,  upon  my  word,  when 
the  night  comes,  I  verily  believe  I  shall  cry." 

Many  years  afterwards  Dickens  paid  (in  All  the  Year 
Round,  1869),  a  tribute  to  Macready's  Covent  Garden  man- 
agement in  the  following  words: 

"It  is  a  fact  beyond  all  possibility  of  question  that 
.  Mr.  Macready,  in  assuming  the  management  of  Covent 
Garden  Theatre  in  1837,  did  instantly  set  himself,  re- 
gardless  of  precedent  and  custom  down  to  that  hour 
obtaining,  rigidly  to  suppress  this  shameful  thing,^  and 

»"The  outrage  upon  decency  which  the  lobbies  and  upper-boxes  of  even 
our  best  Theatres  habitually  paraded  within  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years." 


32  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

did  rigidly  suppress  and  crush  it  during  his  whole  man- 
agement of  that  theatre,  and  during  his  whole  subse- 
quent management  of  Drury  Lane.  That  he  did  so,  as 
certainly  without  favour  as  without  fear;  that  he  did 
so,  against  his  own  immediate  interests;  that  he  did  so, 
against  vexations  and  oppositions  which  might  have 
cooled  the  ardour  of  a  less  earnest  man,  or  a  less  de- 
voted artist,  can  be  better  known  to  no  one  than  the 
writer  of  the  present  words,  whose  name  stands  at  the 
head  of  these  pages." 

Between  the  dates  of  the  two  dinners  referred  to,  Dickens 
had  stood  godfather  to  Macready's  son,  Henry.  "One  to  be 
proud  of,"  comments  the  father  in  his  Diary.  Dickens's 
acceptance  of  the  invitation  to  undertake  the  trust  was  as 
follows:  "I  feel  more  true  and  cordial  pleasure  than  I  can 
express  to  you  in  the  request  you  have  made.  Anything 
which  can  serve  to  commemorate  our  friendship,  and  to  keep 
the  recollection  of  it  alive  among  our  children  is,  believe  me, 
and  ever  will  be,  most  deeply  prized  by  me.  I  accept  the 
office  with  hearty  and  fervent  satisfaction ;  and,  to  render  this 
pleasant  bond  between  us  the  more  complete,  I  must  solicit 
you  to  become  godfather  to  the  last  and  final  branch  of  a 
genteel  small  family  of  three  which  I  am  told  may  be  looked 
for  in  that  auspicious  month  when  Lord  Mayors  are  born 
and  guys  prevail."  The  invitation  was  accepted,  the  ex- 
pected branch — ^but  not  the  "last  and  final" — arrived  in 
October,  and  on  August  25,  1840,  Kate  Macready  Dickens— 
now  Mrs.  Pcruglnl — was  christened. 

In  1839  Dickens  gave  Macready  another  proof  of  the  re- 
gard in  which  he  held  him  by  dedicating  Nicholas  NicUchy 
to  him  in  the  following  terms :  "To  W.  C.  Macready,  Esq., 
the  following  pages  are  inscribed,  as  a  slight  token  of  admi- 
ration and  regard,  by  his  friend,  the  Author."  The  com- 
pletion of  the  book  was  celebrated  by  a  dinner  held  at  the 
Albion,  Aldersgate  Street,  at  which  INIacready  proposed  the 
toast  of  the  evening,  saying  that  the  declaration  ojf  Dickens 
in  his  dedication  was  a  tangible  manifestation  to  him  that 
he  was  not  wholly  valueless,  and  that  the  friendship  of  such 
a  man  increased  his  self-respect. 

Three  weeks  later  Macready  received  from  Boz  a  copy 


WILLIAM  CHARLES  MACREADY       33 

of  the  book  with  this  letter:  "The  book,  the  whole  book,  and 
nothing  but  the  book  .  .  .  has  arrived  at  last,  and  is  for- 
warded herewith.  The  red  represents  my  blushes  at  its  gor- 
geous dress ;  the  gilding,  all  those  bright  professions  which 
I  do  not  make  to  you;  and  the  book  itself,  my  whole  heart 
for  twenty  months,  which  should  be  yours  for  so  short  a 
term,  as  you  have  it  always."  Macready's  comment  in  his 
Diary  is :  "Returned  home,  found  a  parcel  with  a  note  from 
Dickens,  and  a  presentation  copy  of  Nicklehy.  What  a  dear 
fellow  he  is !" 

Boz  had  no  more  assiduous  and  no  more  admiring  reader 
than  this  friend,  who  was  one  of  the  many  to  plead  with 
him  to  allow  Little  Nell  to  live.  "Asked  Dickens  to  spare 
the  life  of  Nell  in  his  story,  and  observed  that  he  was  cruel. 
He  blushed,  and  men  who  blush  are  said  to  be  proud  or  cruel. 

He  is  not  proud,  and  therefore ,  or,  as  Dickens  added, 

the  axiom  is  false."  The  very  next  entry  perhaps  explains 
why  Dickens  blushed.  Nell  was  already  dead.  "Found  at 
home  notes  from  Ransom,  and  one  from  Dickens  with  an 
onAvard  number  of  Master  Humphrey^ s  Clock.  I  saw  one 
print  in  it  of  the  dear  dead  child  that  gave  a  dead  chill 
through  my  blood.  I  dread  to  read  it,  but  I  must  get  it 
over.  I  have  read  the  two  numbers.  I  never  have  read 
printed  words  that  gave  me  so  much  pain.  I  could  not  weep 
for  some  time.  Sensation,  sufferings  have  retui'ned  to  me, 
that  are  terrible  to  awaken.  It  is  real  to  me ;  I  cannot  criti- 
cise it."  Who  can  doubt  but  that  that  blush  was  caused 
by  the  thought  that  the  death  of  Nell  would  reawaken  the 
actor's  recent  grief! 

Macready  showed  his  friendship  for  Dickens  when,  in  1841, 
the  latter,  contemplating  a  visit  to  America,  was  perplexed 
as  to  what  arrangements  to  make  for  the  care  of  his  children 
during  his  absence.  Macready  relieved  him  of  his  anxiety 
by  offering  to  undertake  the  responsibility.  The  offer  was 
gratefully  accepted,  and  the  little  ones  spent  their  days  at 
the  actor's  house  whilst  their  father  travelled  in  the  Western 
world.  How  much  Dickens  appreciated  Macready's  kindness 
is  shown,  not  only  by  his  letters  to  him,  but  by  his  letters 
to  Forster  and  others.  During  his  journey  from  Pittsburg 
to  Cincinnati,  for  instance,  he  wrote  to  the  actor:  "God  bless 
you,  my  dearest  friend,  a  hundred  times,  God  bless  you!     I 


34  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

will  not  thank  you  (how  can  I  thank  3'ou!)  for  your  care 
of  our  dear  children,  but  I  will  ever  be,  heart  and  soul,  3'our 
faithful  friend."    And  he  was. 

He  sailed  on  January  4,  and  on  the  1st  he  said  "Fare- 
well" to  Macready.  "Dear  Dickens  called  to  shake  hands 
with  me.  My  heart  was  quite  full;  it  is  much  to  me  to  lose 
the  presence  of  a  friend  who  really  loves  me.  He  said  there 
was  no  one  whom  he  felt  such  pain  in  saying  good-bj^e  to — 
God  bless  him."  Some  of  the  most  interesting  of  his  Amer- 
ican letters  were  written  to  Macready,  and  when  he  returned 
to  England  Macready  was  among  the  first  whom  he  hastened 
to  greet.  "I  was  lying  on  my  sofa  when  a  person  entered 
abruptly  whom  I  glanced  at  as  Forster.'* — no;  Jonathan 
Bucknill? — no.  Why,  who  was  it  but  dear  Dickens,  holding 
me  in  his  arms  in  a  transport  of  jo^^,  God  bless  him!" 

In  December  1842  Macready  spoke  Dickens's  Prologue 
to  J.  Westland  Marston's  new  play,  "The  Patrician's 
Daughter,"  and,  according  to  his  own  account,  spoke  it  "tol- 
erably well."  A  little  less  than  a  year  later  he  set  out  on 
his  first  American  tour.  Prior  to  his  departure  he  was 
entertained  to  dinner  at  the  Star  and  Garter,  Richmond, 
and  Dickens,  who  was  the  prime  organiser  of  the  function, 
took  the  chair.  He  was  also  made  the  recipient  of  a  testi- 
monial at  Willis's  Rooms. 

On  the  advice  of  Captain  Marryat,  Dickens  did  not  go  to 
see  his  friend  off  for  the  States,  the  fear — which  Dickens 
shared — being  that  the  NickUby  dedication  would  damage 
Macready.  America  was  angry  with  the  author  of  American 
Notes  and  Martin  Chuzzleuit,  and  "if  I  were  to  go  on  board 
with  him,"  he  wrote  to  Forster,  "I  have  not  the  least  doubt 
that  the  fact  would  be  placarded  all  over  New  York  before 
he  had  shaved  himself  in  Boston.  And  that  there  arc  thou- 
sands of  men  in  America  who  would  pick  a  quarrel  with  him 
on  the  mere  statement  of  his  being  my  friend  I  have  no  more 
doubt  than  I  have  of  my  existence."  During  his  absence 
Macready  received  from  Dickens  a  copy  of  the  Carol — "a 
little  book  I  published  on  the  17th  of  December,  and  which 
has  been  a  most  prodigious  success — the  greatest,  I  think 
I  have  ever  achieved.  It  pleases  me  to  think  that  it  will 
bring  you  home  for  an  hour  or  two,  and  I  long  to  hear  you 
have  read  it  on  some  quiet  morning." 


WILLIAM  CHARLES  MACREADY       35 

When  Macready  returned  to  England  Dickens  was  in 
Italy.  None  the  less,  he  was  greeted  by  the  following  letter 
which  he  found  awaiting  him:  "My  very  dear  Macready, — • 
My  whole  heart  is  with  you  'at  home.'  I  have  not  felt  so 
far  off  as  I  do  now,  when  I  think  of  you  there  and  cannot 
hold  you  in  my  arms.  This  is  only  a  shake  of  the  hand.  I 
couldn't  say  much  to  you  if  I  were  to  greet  you.  Nor  can 
I  write  much  when  I  think  of  you  safe  and  sound — happy 
after  all  your  wanderings.  My  dear  fellow,  God  bless  you 
twenty  thousand  times;  happiness  and  joy  be  with  you.  I 
hope  to  see  you  soon.  If  I  should  be  so  unfortunate  as  to 
miss  you  in  London,  I  will  fall  on  you  with  a  swoop  of  love 
in  Paris.  .  .  .  Again,  and  again,  and  again,  my  own  true 
friend,  God  bless  you !" 

They  met  in  Paris,  and  Macready  writes  in  December 
1844:  "Dickens  dined  with  us,  and  left  us  at  half-past  five, 
taking  with  him  the  last  pleasant  day  I  expect  to  pass  in 
Paris."  Macready  had  gone  to  the  French  capital  to  fulfil 
an  engagement,  and  Dickens  met  him  there  on  his  way  back 
to  Genoa  from  London,  whence  he  had  gone  to  give  that 
memorable  reading  of  The  Chimes  at  Forster's  chambers. 
Macready  was  not  present  at  that  reading,  but  on  the  night 
before  Dickens  read  the  book  to  him,  and  in  a  letter  to  his 
wife  the  novelist  wrote:  "If  you  had  seen  Macready  last 
night,  undisguisedly  sobbing  and  crying  on  the  sofa  as  I 
read,  you  would  have  felt,  as  I  did,  what  a  thing  it  is  to 
have  power." 

In  the  following  year  Dickens  and  his  friends  gave  the 
first  of  that  memorable  series  of  amateur  theatricals,  play- 
ing "Every  Man  in  His  Humour"  at  Miss  Kelly's  theatre  in 
Dean  Street  in  September,  and  repeating  that  play,  together 
with  "The  Elder  Brother,"  at  the  same  theatre  in  December. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  Macready's  help  and  advice  were 
much  sought  after  by  the  amateur  actors.  Nor  need  we  be 
surprised  if  the  amateurs  irritated  him  occasionally.  "Called 
on  Forster,"  he  records,  "with  whom  I  found  Dickens,  and 
gave  them  the  best  directions  I  could  to  two  unskilled  men, 
how  to  manage  their  encounter  in  the  play  of  'The  Elder 
Brother.'  "  And  again :  "Went  out  with  Edward  to  call  on 
Forster.  Found  Dickens  and  his  tailor  at  his  chambers,  he 
encased  in  his  doublet  and  hose.     It  is  quite  ludicrous  the 


36  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

fuss  which  the  actors  make  about  this  play ! — but  I  was  sorry 
to  hear  of  intemperate  language  between  them,  which  should 
neither  have  been  given  or  received  as  it  was." 

In  1851  Macready  said  farewell  to  the  stage,  and  on  the 
day  after  he  had  made  his  last  appearance  he  received  a 
letter  from  his  friend  which  contained  the  following: 

"I  cannot  forbear  a  word  about  last  night.  I  think 
I  have  told  you  sometimes,  my  much-loved  friend,  how, 
when  I  was  a  mere  boy,  I  was  one  of  your  faithful  and 
devoted  adherents  in  the  pit — I  believe  as  true  a  mem- 
ber of  that  true  host  of  followers  as  it  has  ever  boasted. 
As  I  improved  myself,  and  was  improved  by  favouring 
circumstances  in  mind  and  fortune,  I  only  became  the 
more  earnest  (if  it  were  possible)  in  my  study  of  you. 
No  light  portion  of  my  life  arose  before  me  when  the 
quiet  vision  to  which  I  am  beholden,  in  I  don't  know 
how  great  a  degree,  or  for  how  much — who  does? — 
faded  from  my  bodily  eyes  last  night.  And  if  I  were  to 
try  to  tell  you  what  I  felt — of  regret  of  its  being  past 
for  ever,  and  of  joy  in  tlie  thought  that  you  could  have 
taken  your  leave  of  vie  but  in  God's  own  time — I 
should  only  blot  this  pa.per  with  something  that  would 
certainly  not  be  in  ink,  and  give  very  faint  expressions 
to  very  strong  emotions.  What  is  all  this  in  writing.? 
It  is  only  some  sort  of  relief  to  my  full  heart,  and 
shows  very  little  of  it  to  you;  but  that's  sometliing, 
so  I  let  it  go." 

The  actor  Avent  to  live  at  Sherborne,  and  there  he  lived 
a  life  of  quiet  and  dullness.  As  the  Editor  of  his  Diary 
says :  "On  the  whole,  the  period  of  his  residence  at  Sherborne 
must  have  been  a  depressing  one,  and  he  looms  out  of  its 
greyness  for  the  most  part  a  brooding,  sombre,  figure  much 
engrossed  with  family  cares,  and  more  than  once  bowed  down 
by  a  fresh  stroke  of  bitter  affliction."  And  Dickens,  in  a 
letter  to  Forster,  struck  a  similar  note.  IMacready  visited 
him  in  Paris  in  1857,  and  after  his  return  the  novelist  wrote 
to  Forster:  "It  fills  me  with  pity  to  think  of  him  away  in 
that  lonely  Sherborne  place.  I  have  always  felt  of  myself 
that  I  must,  please  God,  die  in  harness,  but  I  have  never 


WILLIAM  CHARLES  MACREADY       37 

felt  it  more  strongly  than  in  looking  at  and  thinking  of 
him."  It  was  in  those  days  that  Dickens  proved  the  sincerity 
of  those  professions  of  friendship  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
he  had  made  in  his  letters  through  the  years  that  had  passed. 
Lady  Pollock  bears  testimony  to  this.  "When  the  weight 
of  time  and  sorrow  pressed  him  down,  Dickens  was  his  most 
frequent  visitor.  He  cheered  him  with  narratives  of  bygone 
days;  he  poured  some  of  his  own  abundant  warmth  into  his 
heart;  he  led  him  into  new  channels  of  thought;  he  gave 
readings  to  rouse  his  interest;  he  waked  up  in  him  again  by 
his  vivid  descriptions,  his  sense  of  humour;  he  conjured  back 
his  smile  and  his  laugh — Charles  Dickens  was  and  is  to  me 
the  ideal  of  friendship,"  Could  any  man  wish  to  have  a 
better  epitaph  than  that.'' 

In  1859,  however,  Macready  removed  from  Sherborne  to 
Cheltenham,  where  he  spent  the  remaining  3^ears  of  his  life. 
There  Dickens  visited  him  in  January,  1862,  and  his  old 
friend  came  to  hear  him  read.  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Hogarth, 
Dickens  relates  the  effect  of  the  Copperfield  reading  on  Mac- 
ready.  "When  I  got  home  ...  I  found  him  quite  unable 
to  speak,  and  able  to  do  nothing  but  square  his  dear  old  jaw 
all  on  one  side,  and  roll  his  eyes  (half  closed)  like  Jackson's 
picture  of  him.  And  when  I  said  something  light  about  it 
he  returned :  'No — er — Dickens !  I  swear  to  Heaven  that  as 
a  piece  of  passion  and  playfulness — er — indescribably  mixed 
up  together,  it  does — er — no,  really,  Dickens — amaze  me  as 
profoundly  as  it  moves  me.     But   as   a  piece  of  art — and 

you  know — er — that  I — no,  Dickens  !     By  !  have  seen 

the  best  art  in  a  great  time — it  is  incomprehensible  to  me. 
How  is  it  got  at? — er — how  is  it  done? — er — how  one  man 
can — well !  It  lays  me  on  my — er — back,  and  it  is  of  no 
use  talking  about  it !'  With  which  he  put  his  hand  upon 
my  breast  and  pulled  out  his  pocket-handkerchief,  and  I  felt 
as  if  I  were  doing  somebody  to  his  Werner." 

Seven  years  later  Dickens  again  visited  Cheltenham,  and 
gave  a  special  reading  of  the  murder  scene  from  Oliver  Twist 
for  the  benefit  of  his  friend — now  a  feeble  old  man.  Its  effect 
on  Macready  has  been  told  by  many,  but  by  none  better 
than  by  Dolby.  The  latter  took  him  to  Dickens's  room  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  reading,  and  there,  after  being  seated 
on  the  sofa,  he  said :  "You  remember  my  best  days,  my  dear 


38  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

old  boy? — No,  that's  not  it.     Well,  to  make  a  long  story        i 
short,  all  I  have  to  say  is — two  Macbeths !" 

And  Dolby  has  also  given  us  an  interesting,  if  pathetic, 
picture  of  the  old  tragedian  that  same  evening,  when  he 
entertained  Dickens  at  his  house.  "Dickens  was  all  life  and 
vivacity,  and  when  he  found  his  old  friend  relapsing  into 
feebleness  and  forgetfulness,  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and 
refreshed  his  memory  by  some  question  about  the  olden  days 
which  caused  Macready's  face  to  change  from  its  usual  sto- 
lidity to  an  expression  of  quite  vivacious  humour."  He  had 
an  idea  that  in  his  retirement  he  was  forgotten  by  the  world, 
and  Dickens  delighted  him  by  telling  him  that  his  old  harle- 
quin had  desired  to  be  remembered  to  him.  Says  Dolby: 
"The  fact  of  Smith  remembering  Macready  put  the  latter  in 
such  a  good  humour  that  he  insisted  on  having  another  bottle 
of  the  'old  straw  Madeira'  .  .  .  brought  into  the  room. 
This  being  done  he  cheered  up,  and  proceeded  to  tell  us 
anecdotes  of  his  managerial  days.  ...  In  the  recital  of 
these  he  seemed  to  have  changed  his  nature,  and,  as  Dickens 
remarked  afterwards,  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  that  Mac- 
ready  had  ever  been  anything  but  a  low  comedian.  This  little 
incident,  told  here,  can  scarcely  produce  much  effect,  but  the 
vis  comica  employed  by  Macready,  and  the  manner  in  which 
Dickens  contrived  to  enliven  his  friend  by  his  brief  visit — 
and  especially  the  way  these  stories  were  extracted  from  him 
' — formed  a  pantomimic  treat  not  easily  to  be  forgotten." 

This  was  the  last  meeting  of  the  two  friends.  Macready 
outlived  Dickens  by  practically  three  years.  His  daughter, 
Kate,  it  may  be  noted,  was  a  contributor  to  Household 
Words. 


CHAPTER  VI 


ROBERT   BROWNING 


We  are  told  by  the  Editors  of  The  Letters  of  Charles 
Dickens  that  Robert  Browning  was  a  dear  and  valued  friend 
of  the  novelist.  That  is  undoubtedly  true,  and  therefore  it 
is  a  pity  that  so  little  record  of  their  friendship  exists.  Their 
friendship  was  inevitable,  of  course,  for,  with  the  sole  excep- 
tion of  Dickens,  Browning  was  Forster's  greatest  friend,  and 
he  was  the  friend  of  Macready  too.  And  a  friendship  be- 
tween two  such  men  as  Dickens  and  Browning  was  very 
natural.  True,  one  was  a  cultured  man  and  the  other  had 
no  learning  at  all,  but  Browning  was  no  ponderous  pedant, 
and  had  none  of  the  eccentricities  or  posings  that  are  too 
commonly  associated  with  poets.  Both  men  were  optimists. 
Both  were  sure  that  "God's  in  His  Jieaven,  All's  right  with 
the  world,"  and  preached  that  gospel  untiringly.  Both  loved 
their  fellow-men;  both  believed  in  and  taught  the  gospel  of 
love,  and  faith,  and  hope.  I  have  seen  no  reference  to  the 
poet's  opinions  of  Dickens's  works,  but  we  know  that  Dickens 
appreciated  the  worth  of  Browning's  work  from  the  begin- 
ning. He  wrote  "Blot  on  the  'scutcheon"  in  manuscript  in 
1842,  Forster  having  privately  passed  it  on  to  him;  and  this 
is  what  he  wrote: 

"Browning's  play  has  thrown  me  into  a  perfect  pas- 
sion of  sorrow.  To  say  there  is  anything  in  its  subject 
save  what  is  lovely,  true,  deeply  affecting,  full  of  the 
best  emotion,  the  most  earnest  feeling,  and  the  most  true 
and  tender  source  of  interest,  is  to  say  that  there  is 
no  light  in  the  sun,  and  no  heat  in  the  blood.  It  is 
full  of  genius,  natural  and  great  thoughts,  profound 
and  yet  simple  and  beautiful  in  its  vigour.  I  know 
nothing  that  is  so  affecting,  nothing  in  any  books  I  have 
ever  read,  as  Mildred's  recurrence  to  that  *I  was  so 
SO 


40  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

young — I  had  no  mother.'  I  know  no  love  like  it,  no 
passion  like  it,  no  moulding  of  a  splendid  thing  after 
its  conception,  like  it.  And  I  swear  it  is  a  tragedy 
that  MUST  be  played;  and  must  be  played,  moreover, 
by  Macready.  There  are  some  things  I  would  have 
changed  if  I  could  (they  are  very  slight,  mostly  broken 
lines),  and  I  assuredly  would  have  the  old  servant  begin 
his  tale  upon  the  scene;  and  be  taken  by  the  throat, 
or  drawn  upon,  by  his  master,  in  its  commencement. 
But  the  tragedy  I  never  shall  forget,  or  less  vividly  re- 
member than  I  do  now.  And  if  you  tell  Browning  that 
I  have  seen  it,  tell  him  that  I  believe  from  my  soul 
there  is  no  man  living  (and  not  many  dead)  who  could 
produce  such  a  work." 

Peculiar  interest  attaches  to  this  letter.  It  never  saw  the 
light  of  day — Browning  never  knew  of  its  existence,  until 
it  was  published  in  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens.  The  play  was 
produced  by  Macready  in  1843,  and  there  was  unpleasant- 
ness between  the  actor  and  the  author  over  its  production. 
It  was  a  failure.  In  1884  Browning  wrote  an  account  of  the 
whole  business  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hill,  then  Editor  of  the 
"Daily  News."  "Macready,"  he  wrote,  "accepted  the  play 
'at  the  instigation'  of  nobody — and  Charles  Dickens  was  not 
in  England  when  he  did  so:  it  was  read  to  him  after  his 
return,  by  Forster — and  the  glowing  letter  which  contains 
his  opinion  of  it,  although  directed  by  him  to  be  shown  to 
myself,  was  never  heard  of  nor  seen  by  me  till  printed  in 
Forster's  book  some  thirty  years  after." 

Now,  Dickens  returned  from  America  in  July  1842:  that 
letter  to  Forster  was  written  in  the  last  week  of  November. 
Browning  says  that  the  play  was  accepted  by  Macready  while 
he  was  still  at  the  Haymarket  theatre,  to  be  produced  at 
Drury  Lane  later  on.  He  adds:  "When  the  Drury  Lane 
season  began,  Macready  informed  me  that  he  should  act  the 
play  when  he  had  brought  out  two  others — 'The  Patrician's 
Daughter,'  and  'Plighted  Troth';  having  done  so,  he  wrote 
to  me  that  the  former  had  been  unsuccessful  in  money  draw- 
ing, and  the  latter  had  'smashed  his  arrangements  alto- 
gether'; but  he  would  still  produce  my  play."  Browning 
writing  forty  years  later,  suggests  that  this  was  a  hint  from 


ROBERT  BROWNING  41 

Macready  that  he  would  like  to  be  relieved  from  his  under- 
taking, but  that  he  did  not  appreciate  it  at  the  time.  He 
then  goes  on  to  suggest  unmistakably  that  Macready  set  him- 
self to  fulfil  his  undertaking  in  the  letter  only,  doing  all  he 
could  to  discourage  the  author  with  a  view  to  disgusting  him 
into  withdrawing  it.  That  is  clearly  the  only  interpretation 
of  the  poet's  letter. 

Why  did  Forster,  the  friend  of  Browning,  Macready,  and 
Dickens,  withhold  the  novelist's  letter;  with  its  passionate 
appreciation  of  the  play?  The  poet's  biographer,  Mrs. 
Sutherland  Orr,  says  that  he  felt  it  a  just  cause  of  bitter- 
ness that  the  letter,  which  "was  clearly  written  to  Mr,  For- 
ster in  order  that  it  might  be  seen,  was  withheld  for  thirty 
years  from  his  knowledge,  and  that  of  the  public  whose 
judgment  it  might  so  largely  have  influenced."  Not  unnat- 
urally. The  publication  of  the  letter  would  have  been  balm 
to  the  poet  in  those  days  when  he  was  struggling  for  recog- 
nition; at  a  time  when  he  was  being  so  much  worried  over 
the  production  of  the  play  it  would  have  meant  much  to  him 
indeed.  Then  why  did  Forster,  his  closest  friend,  withhold 
it?  Suppose  he  was  torn  by  the  claims  of  two  friends?  We 
know  that  he  apprized  Browning's  genius  at  its  true  value, 
that  he  was  the  first  critic  of  real  standing  to  do  so,  and  to 
foresee  the  poet's  greatness.  Suppose  he  felt  that  by  with- 
holding the  letter  he  would  be  doing  the  one  friend — Mac- 
ready — an  immediate  substantial  service,  and  doing  the  other 
no  lasting  harm,  knowing  that  the  actor  had  to  "make  good" 
in  the  present,  and  that  the  poet  was  certain  of  greatness 
notwithstanding  a  present  disappointment?  Suppose  he  laid 
this  point  of  view  before  Dickens,  and  the  latter  said :  "Very 
well;  but  publish  the  letter  some  day,  to  show  to  the  world 
that  I  recognised  a  genius  when  I  saw  him"?  On  any  other 
grounds  than  these  Forstcr's  conduct  is  simply  inexplicable. 
Dickens  must  have  acquiesced,  for  he  and  Browning  were 
friends  till  the  end  of  his  life,  and  but  for  some  reason 
for  silence,  the  matter  must  have  cropped  up  in  the  c«urse 
of  an  intimacy  extending  over  thirty  years. 


CHAPTER  VII 

"phiz" 

At  the  time  that  Cruikshank  was  illustrating  Sketches  by 
Boz  a  much  younger  artist  was  illustrating  another  book  by 
the  same  author.  Sunday  Under  Three  Heads  was  published 
in  the  same  year,  and  a  young  artist  of  promise  was  engaged 
to  do  the  illustrations.  He  had  not  met  the  author,  but  was 
destined  soon  to  do  so,  and  to  win  immortality  through  an 
almost  lifelong  association  with  him.  How  that  came  about 
does  not  need  to  be  retold  in  detail.  The  first  number  of 
Pickwick  appeared  on  March  31,  1836.  Immediately  after- 
wards the  artist,  Seymour,  committed  suicide.  R.  W.  Buss 
took  his  place,  and  after  two  more  numbers  he  was  deemed 
unsatisfactory,  and  Hablot  Knight  Browne  commenced  an 
association  with  Dickens  that  was  to  last  for  practically  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  Browne  was  barely  twenty-one  years 
old,  but  three  years  previously  he  had  received  a  silver  medal 
from  the  Society  of  Arts  for  a  large  engraving,  "John  Gil- 
pin's Ride."  Buss  afterwards  stated  that  at  this  time 
Browne  was  "quite  incapable  of  'biting-in'  and  finishing  his 
own  designs."  This,  I  believe,  is  quite  true;  it  is  confirmed, 
indeed,  by  Phiz's  biographer,  Mr.  David  Croal  Thomson; 
but  the  artist  was  able  to  rely  upon  the  assistance  of  his 
lifelong  friend,  Robert  Young,  who  was  one  of  the  most 
expert  engravers  in  London,  in  whose  hands  Phiz's  work  never 
suffered. 

I  think  that  Buss  was  not  given  quite  a  fair  trial,  but  we 
have  to  remember,  in  fairness  to  Dickens  and  the  publishers, 
that  Pickwick  was  in  parlous  plight — that  at  this  time  it 
was  almost  a  "toss  up"  whether  the  work  should  be  persevered 
with  or  not.  Browne  had  already  illustrated  a  book  of 
Dickens's  to  the  author's  satisfaction.  What  more  natural 
than  that  he  should  say,  "Try  Browne".?  From  Dickens's 
standpoint,  Phiz  was  ideal  in  this  way — ^he  was,  as  one  of 
42 


"PHIZ"  4S 

his  blograpliers  puts  It,  "a  marvel  of  pliability";  ho  was 
"amenable  to  discipline,"  so  to  speak.  It  was  sufficient  for 
Dickens  to  say,  "I  want  this  done  in  such  and  such  a  way"; 
he  could  rely  upon  it  being  so  done.  I  fancy  the  relations 
between  Dickens  and  Browne,  as  author  and  illustrator,  re- 
sembled those  of  superior  and  subordinate.  If  Browne  had 
been  a  man  of  very  strong  individuality  I  doubt  if  he  would 
have  illustrated  Dickens  for  twenty-three  years.  In  effect, 
he  was  content  to  receive  instructians  from  the  novelist  and 
to  do  his  best  to  give  satisfaction. 

It  is  said  that  Thackeray  was  the  first  to  inform  Browne 
of  his  good  fortune.  The  story  is  that  when  Titmarsh  sub- 
mitted his  sketches  to  Boz,  the  latter  informed  him  that 
Browne  had  been  selected,  and  that  thereupon  he  hunted  out 
the  lucky  man  and  congratulated  him.  It  would  certainly 
be  like  Thackeray  to  do  so.  Phiz's  first  published  illustration 
to  Dickens  was  the  one  which  "standardised"  Sam  Weller,  and 
it  appeared  in  the  fourth  number  of  PicJcwicJc,  which  was 
the  number  that  marked  the  commencement  of  the  book's 
wondrous  success.     It  was  indeed  an  auspicious  beginning. 

It  is  totally  unnecessary  to  go  into  details  concerning 
Phiz's  illustrations  to  Dickens :  all  we  are  concerned  with  is 
the  personal  relations  between  the  two  men.  And  I  fancy 
we  shall  be  correct  if  we  say  that  there  was  a  friendliness 
rather  than  a  friendship.  Their  temperaments  were  totally 
unlike.  Dickens  was  a  man  of  the  world,  always  at  his  best 
in  company,  to  whom,  indeed,  company  was  as  the  breath 
of  his  nostrils ;  Browne  was  a  shy  retiring  man,  who  almost 
dreaded  company.  And  it  was  most  difficult  to  persuade 
him  to  meet  a  few  friends,  we  are  told,  and  when  he  did 
accept  an  invitation,  he  always  tried  to  seclude  himself  in 
a  comer  of  the  room,  or  behind  a  curtain.  Mr.  Arthur  All- 
chin  says,  "Into  the  social  life  of  Dickens  Browne  could 
seldom  be  drawn,"  and  the  artist's  son  ^  tells  us  that  his 
father  "was  by  nature  shy  and  given  to  self-effacement,  and 
when  he  became  a  busy  man  and  had  consequently  little  time 
or  opportunity  for  social  amusements,  these  tendencies  in- 
creased till  his  dread  of  strangers  amounted  to  a  detrimental 
feature  in  his  character." 

>  The  late  Dr.  Edgar  Browne,  of  Liverpool. 


44  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"It  became  very  difficult  to  make  him  go  anywhere. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  career  he  was  certainly  consid- 
ered a  cheerful  companion,  and  took  a  part,  if  he  found 
himself  in  congenial  company,  in  any  fun  that  was 
going.  .  .  .  But  by  living  so  much  alone  in  his  study, 
having  an  innate  dislike  of  push,  and  a  sort  of  natural 
distrust  of  strangers,  he  gradually  worked  himself  up 
until  it  was  difficult  to  get  him  to  see  anybody  except 
intimate  friends.  He  did  not  realise  that  there  must  be 
a  stage  before  intimacj-." 

It  is  rather  curious  that  Browne  should  not  have  been 
present  at  the  Pickwick  dinner.  Neither  Forster,  nor  Mac- 
ready,  nor  Ainsworth  includes  his  name  among  the  names  of 
the  guests.  He  was  present  at  the  Nicklehy  and  Clock  din- 
ners, however,  and  I  believe  he  was  present  at  all  the  subse- 
quent book  dinners  until  liis  business  associations  v/ith 
Dickens  were  severed  in  1859. 

Before  Pickwick  was  finished  author  and  artist  were  on 
such  excellent  terms  that  Browne  accompanied  Dickens  and 
his  wife  to  Flanders  for  a  summer  holiday-  in  July  1837.  In 
January  of  the  following  year  the  two  young  men  made  their 
trip  to  Yorkshire,  which  may  almost  be  described  as  his- 
toric, their  object  being  to  obtain  "local  colour"  and  first- 
hand information  for  the  Dotheboy  scenes  in  Nicholas  A^ick- 
lehy.  In  November  of  the  same  year,  they  made  another 
excursion  together,  with  the  object  of  securing  material  for 
the  same  book,  going  to  Manchester,  ostensibly  to  see  the 
inside  of  a  cotton  mill,  but  in  reality,  as  we  now  know,  to  see 
the  Brothers  Grant,  who  were  unconscioush'  to  pose  for  their 
portraits  to  the  brilliant  young  novelist,  and  were  to  be 
immortalised  by  him  as  the  Brothers  Cheeryble.^ 

The  last  book  that  Phiz  illustrated  for  Dickens  was  A 
Tale  of  Two  Cities.  That  was  In  1859.  I  can  find  no  evi- 
dence of  any  quarrel.  IMr.  Arthur  Allchin  says :  "His 
(Phiz's)  reserved  nature  was  becoming  intensified  as  he  grew 
older,  while  upon  Dickens  began  to  flow  that  stream  of  flat- 
tery and  adulation  which  eventually  urged  him  to  break  with 
publishers,  with  assistants,  and  with  tried  friends."     Quite 

I  See  chapter  iii. 


p?./-^ 


"PHIZ"  45 

respectfully,  I  teg  to  state  my  opinion  that  this  is  absurd, 
and  grossly  unjust  to  Dickens.  The  man  had  his  faults 
unquestionably,  but  that  the  flattery  and  adulation  of  the 
world  ever  caused  him  to  turn  from  any  friend  of  earlier 
years,  no  evidence  exists  to  prove.  It  is  true  that  Mr.  All- 
chin  quotes  Phiz  as  saying:  "I  was  about  the  last  of  those 
who  knew  him  in  early  days  with  whom  Dickens  fell  out, 
and  considering  the  grand  people  he  had  around  him  and 
the  compliments  he  perpetually  received,  it  is  a  wonder  we 
remained  friends  so  long."  Phiz  may  have  written  this,  but 
it  would  be  in  a  moment  of  perhaps  not  unnatural  pique. 
I  am  very  sure  that  this  was  not  his  true  judgment  of 
Dickens.  The  novelist  had  been  receiving  flattery  and  adu- 
lation, and  had  moved  among  the  highest  in  the  land,  for 
twenty  years.  If  such  things  were  likely  to  turn  his  head, 
they  would  have  done  so  long  before  1859.  Whatever  else 
may  be  said  of  Dickens,  it  cannot  be  said  with  any  show  of 
justification  that  he  was  a  snob. 

Then  Mr.  Allchin  goes  on  to  make  another  suggestion. 
This  is  to  the  efi'ect  that  Phiz  was  dropped  because  he  refused 
to  side  with  Dickens  in  his  domestic  troubles :  "Browne," 
he  says,  "persistently  refused  to  express  an  opinion  or  to 
interfere,  and  though  Dickens  said  nothing  further  at  the 
time,  the  book  then  in  progress,  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities,  was 
the  last  Browne  was  commissioned  to  illustrate."  One  would 
like  to  know  exactly  on  what  ground  the  suggestion  is  based. 
Browne  himself  seems  to  have  had  no  definite  explanation, 
as  witness  his  letter  to  his  friend  Young: 

"By  your  enclosed,  Marcus  is  no  doubt  to  do 
Dickens.  I  have  been  a  *good  boy,'  I  believe — the  plates 
are  all  in  hand  in  good  time,  so  that  I  don't  know 
what's  up  any  more  than  you  do.  Dickens  probably 
thinks  a  new  hand  would  give  his  old  puppets  a  fresh 
look,  or  perhaps  he  does  not  like  my  illustrating  Trol- 
lope  neck  and  neck  with  him,  though,  by  Jingo !  he  need 
fear  no  rivalry  there!  Confound  all  authors  and  pub- 
lishers, say  I;  there  is  no  pleasing  or  satisfying  one  or 
t'other.  I  wish  I  never  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
lot." 


46  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

This  letter  was  so  obviously  written  in  a  moment  of  irri- 
tation— at  the  very  time  when  Phiz  knew  that  he  was  to  be 
dropped — that  it  cannot  be  taken  seriously.  But  it  does 
prove  that,  at  the  time,  at  any  rate,  Browne  had  no  idea 
what  was  the  reason  for  his  having  been  dropped.  Years 
afterwards  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  one  of  his  sons, 
referring  to  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities: 

"A  rather  curious  thing  happened  with  this  book: 
Watts  Pliillips,  the  dramatist,  hit  upon  the  very  same 
identical  plot;  they  had  evidently  both  of  them  been  to 
the  same  source  in  Pais  for  their  story.  Watts's  play 
came  out  with  great  success  with  stunning  climax  at 
about  the  time  of  Dickens's  sixth  number.  The  public 
saw  that  they  were  identically  the  same  story,  so  Dickens 
shut  up  at  the  ninth  number  instead  of  going  on  to 
the  eighteenth  as  usual.  All  tliis  put  Dickens  out  of 
temper,  and  he  squabbled  with  me  amongst  others,  and 
I  never  drew  another  line  for  him." 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  the  letter  to  Young  written  at  the 
time,  Phiz  makes  no  mention  of  any  squabble.  I  have  been 
unable  to  find  any  confirmation  of  the  statement  that  Dickens 
reduced  the  length  of  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities  by  one  half; 
there  certainly  is  no  internal  evidence  to  support  it.  Nor 
have  I  found  any  confirmation  of  the  assertion  that  Dickens 
was  out  of  temper  because  of  the  success  of  "A  Dead  Heart" 
' — though  the  coincidence  must  have  been  exceedingly 
annoying. 

But,  after  all,  there  is  a  likely  explanation  for  Dickens's 
change  of  illustrator.  His  old  friend,  Frank  Stone,  died  in 
1859,  and  he  promptly  exerted  himself  on  behalf  of  young 
Marcus  Stone,  of  whose  abilities  as  an  artist  he  had  a  very 
high  opinion.  As  witness  this  letter  that  he  wrote  to  Thomas 
Longman,  the  publisher : 

"I  am  very  anxious  to  present  to  you,  with  the  earnest 
hope  that  you  will  hold  him  in  your  remembrance, 
young  Mr.  Marcus  Stone,  son  of  poor  Frank  Stone. 
.  .  .  You  know,  I  daresay,  what  a  start  this  young 
man  made  in  the  last  Exhibition,  and  what  a  favourable 


"PHIZ"  47 

notice  his  picture  attracted.  He  wishes  to  make  an 
additional  opening  for  himself  in  the  illustration  of 
books.  He  is  an  admirable  draughtsman,  has  a  most 
dextrous  hand,  a  charming  sense  of  grace  and  beauty, 
and  a  capital  power  of  observation.  These  qualities 
in  him  I  know  well  to  my  own  knowledge.  He  is,  in  all 
things,  modest,  punctual,  and  right,  and  I  would  answer 
for  him,  if  it  were  needful,  with  my  head.  If  you  will 
put  anything  in  his  way,  you  will  do  it  a  second  time, 
I  am  certain." 

Given  a  young  artist  of  whom  he  had  such  a  glowing 
opinion,  given  the  desire  to  help  him  as  the  son  of  a  very 
dear  friend,  given  the  opportunity  presented  by  the  publi- 
cation of  a  new  book — what  more  natural  than  that  he  should 
commission  Marcus  Stone  to  illustrate  Our  Mutual  Friend? 
It  may  be,  too,  that  Dickens  felt  that  a  change  was  desirable 
even  though  such  a  capable  young  artist,  with  such  strong 
claims  upon  him  had  not  been  ready  to  hand.  Phiz  had 
been  illustrating  his  works  for  twenty-three  years ;  times  had 
changed,  tastes  had  changed;  the  style  of  illustrations  that 
was  popular  in  1836  was  not  so  adapted  to  the  tastes  of 
1860.  We  may  well  understand  Phiz  feeling  hurt:  nothing 
could  be  more  natural ;  but  assuredly  Dickens  had  a  very 
strong  case  indeed — a  case  possibly  greatly  strengthened  by 
Phiz's  action  in  joining  the  staff  of  "Once  a  Week." 

But  we  have  it  on  the  authority  of  the  late  F.  G.  Kitton 
that  relations  were  not  strained  for  long,  and  that  just  after 
Dickens's  death  Phiz  was  "considerably  affected  by  the  mere 
mention  of  the  name  of  the  illustrious  novelist,  which  seemed 
to  stir  up  feelings  of  regret  at  losing  such  a  friend." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THOMAS    NOON    TALFOURD 

Pickwick  appeared  in  volume  form  in  the  autumn  of  1837, 
with  a  dedication  to  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd,  with  whom  a 
close  friendship  had  been  formed  while  the  book  was  ap- 
pearing in  parts.  Dickens  had  first  been  drawn  to  Talfourd 
by  the  latter's  activity  in  the  cause  of  copyright.  Sitting 
in  the  Press  Gallery  of  the  old  House  of  Commons,  he  looked 
down,  as  we  know,  with  something  very  like  contempt  upon 
the  nation's  legislators.  But  for  a  couple  of  Sessions  before 
he  left,  he  had  the  opportunity  of  watcliing  the  young  bar- 
rister who  had  entered  the  House  in  1835,  and  had  been 
enthusiastic  in  the  copyright  cause.  As  a  young  author — - 
not,  of  course,  dreaming  of  the  greatness  that  lay  before 
him,  but  still  conscious  of  abilities  and  hopeful  for  success — 
he  welcomed  Talfourd's  efforts,  and  we  may  at  least  accept 
it  as  probable  that  his  appreciation  of  those  efforts  led  him 
to  seek  the  acquaintance  of  the  Member  for  Reading,  who 
had  just  gained  some  fame  as  the  author  of  "Ion,"  which 
Macready  had  staged. 

Acquaintance  ripened  into  friendship  very  quickly,  and  it 
is  not  surprising.  In  Talfourd  Dickens  found  a  man,  not 
of  genius,  perhaps,  but  of  great  gifts  and  undoubted  versa- 
tility. More  than  that,  he  had  been  one  of  Chai'les  Lamb's 
intimate  friends,  and  had  known  every  member  of  that  great 
company  of  stars  that  had  had  the  gentle  Elia  for  its  sun ; 
he  had  scored  a  success  with  "Ion,"  and  he  was  a  friend  of 
the  great  actor  who  had  staged  the  piece,  for  whom  Dickens 
had  from  boyhood  entertained  feelings  of  the  greatest  admi- 
ration. To  become  personally  acquainted  with  such  a  man 
must  have  been  a  great  joy  to  Boz. 

And  so,  by  the  time  Pickwick  was  finished,  they  had  formed 
a  friendship  that  was  never  to  be  clouded.  It  is  true  that 
Pickwick  was  dedicated  to  Talfourd  largely  out  of  gratitude 
48 


THOMAS  NOON  TALFOURD  49 

for  his  efforts  in  respect  to  copyright,  but  that  was  not  all. 
The  dedication  was  a  tribute  to  the  personal  friendship 
which  existed  between  the  men.  Talfourd  w^as  selected  to 
occupy  the  vice-chair  at  the  dinner  wliich  was  held  to  cele- 
brate the  completion  of  this  book.  "And  an  excellent  Vice 
he  made,"  wrote  Ainsworth;  "he  speaks  with  great  fervour 
and  tact,  and  being  really  greatly  interested  on  the  occa- 
sion, exerted  himself  to  the  utmost."  Whilst  Macrcady  re- 
cords in  his  Diary:  "Talfourd  proposed  Dickens's  health  in 
a  very  good  speech." 

Talfourd  could  scarcely  have  been  a  man  of  strongly- 
marked  personality,  otherwise  the  friend  of  Lamb,  and  Cole- 
ridge, and  Dickens  would  be  better  known  to  posterity  than 
he  is.  But  he  must  have  been  a  lovable  man.  "Facile  and 
fluent  of  kindliest  speech,"  Forster  says  he  was.  "Those 
who  knew  him,"  says  Ballantine,  "will  never  forget  his  kindly 
and  genial  face,  the  happiness  radiating  from  it  when  im- 
parting pleasure  to  others,  and  his  generous  hospitality," 
and  Edmund  Yates  tells  us  that  he  was  a  "kindly  host,  with 
.  .  .  beaming  face."  And  when,  in  1854,  he  died  suddenly 
while  addressing  the  Grand  Jury  at  Stafford,  Dickens  paid 
a  noble  tribute  in  Household  Words  to  his  fine  qualities : 

"So  amiable  a  man,  so  gentle,  so  sweet-tempered,  and 
of  such  noble  simplicity,  so  perfectly  unspoiled  by  his 
labours,  and  their  rewards,  is  very  rare  upon  this  earth. 
.  .  .  The  chief  delight  of  his  life  was  to  give  delight 
to  others.  His  nature  was  so  exquisitely  kind,  that  to 
be  kind  was  its  highest  happiness. 

"An  example  in  his  social  intercourse  to  those  born 
to  station,  an  example  equally  to  those  Avho  win  it  for 
themselves;  teaching  the  one  class  to  abate  its  stupid 
pride,  the  other  to  stand  upon  its  eminence,  not  for- 
getting the  road  by  which  it  got  there  and  fawning  upon 
no  one.  The  conscientious  judge,  the  charming  writer 
and  accomplished  speaker,  the  gentle-hearted,  guileless, 
affectionate  man,  has  entered  on  a  brighter  world. 
Very,  very  many  have  lost  a  friend ;  nothing  in  creation 
has  lost  an  enemy. 

"The  hand  that  lays  this  poor  flower  on  his  grave 
was  a  mere  boy's  when  he  first  clasped  it — newly  "come 


50  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

from  the  work  in  which  he  himself  began  hfe,  little  used 
to  the  plough  it  has  followed  since — obscure  enough, 
with  much  to  correct  and  learn.  Each  of  its  successive 
tasks  through  many  intervening  years  has  been  cheered 
by  his  warmest  interest,  and  the  friendship  then  begun 
has  ripened  to  maturity  in  the  passage  of  time;  but 
there  was  no  more  self-assertion  or  condemnation  in  his 
winning  goodness  at  first  than  at  last.  The  success  of 
other  men  made  as  little  change  in  him  as  his  own." 

The  man  of  whom  that  could  be  written,  even  by  his 
most  partial  friend,  must  have  been  a  good  man,  a  man 
worthy  of  friendship,  a  man  with  whom  the  world  ought  to 
to  be  better  acquainted  than  it  is. 

Talfourd  was  one  of  the  select  circle  in  the  days  of 
Dicken's  earliest  happiness.  In  1839  he  was  at  the  NicJclehy 
dinner;  two  years  later  he  presided  at  the  dinner  to  cele- 
brate the  second  volume  of  Master  Humphrey's  Cloch.  In 
1842  he  was  one  of  those  who  entertained  Dickens  to  dinner 
at  Greenwich  on  his  return  from  America,  and  he  was  at 
many  other  of  these  delightful  gatherings. 

In  1844  Talfourd  was  disappointed  in  what  had  seemed 
to  be  a  grand  opportunity  of  rendering  his  friend  some  signal 
service.  The  story  of  how  Dickens's  novels  were  plagiarised 
and  pirated  is  well  known,  and  it  is  equally  common  knowl- 
edge how  strongly  the  novelist  felt  about  it.  At  last,  in  a 
case  of  peculiar  flagrancy  in  respect  of  the  Carol,  he  took 
action  in  response  to  Talfourd's  and  Forster's  urging.  But 
the  case  was  so  flagrant  that  the  Vice-Chanccllor  would  not 
even  hear  Talfourd,  who,  of  course,  had  been  briefed  by 
Dickens,  and  Forster  comments:  "What  it  cost  our  dear 
friend  to  suppress  his  speech  by  very  much  exceeded  the 
labour  and  pains  with  which  he  had  prepared  it."  After 
leaving  the  court,  Dickens  wrote  to  Forster:  "Oh!  the  agony 
of  Talfonrd  at  Knight  Bruce's  not  hearing  him!  He  had 
sat  up  till  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  he  says,  preparing 
liis  speech,  and  would  have  done  all  kinds  of  things  with  the 
affidavits." 

The  author  of  "Ion"  was  of  course  a  great  a'dmircr  of 
Dickens's  works,  and  we  are  told  that  for  the  Artful  Dodger 
he  evinced  a  particular  regard.    As  Jeffrey  pleaded  that  Lit- 


THOMAS  NOON  TALFOURD  51 

tie  Nell  might  live,  so  Talfourd  pleaded  for  the  Dodger,  "as 
earnestly  in  mitigation  of  judgment  as  ever  at  the  bar  for 
any  client  he  most  respected."  And  when  the  book  in  which 
the  Dodger  appears  was  completed  he  wrote  the  following 
sonnet : 

!'Not  only  with  the  author's  happiest  praise 

Thy  -work  shall  be  rewarded;   'tis  akin 

To  deeds  of  men  who,  scorning  ease  to  win 
A  blessing  for  the  wretched,  pierce  the  maze 
Which  heedless  ages  nurture  I'ound  the  ways, 

Where  fruitful  sorrow  tracks  its  parent  sin, 

Content  to  listen  to  the  wildest  din 
Of  passion,  and  in  fearful  shapes  to  gaze, 

So  they  may  earn  the  power  that  intercedes, 

Wills  the  bright  world  and  melts  it;   for  within  - 
Wan  childhood's  squalid  haunts,  where  barest  needs 

Make  tyranny  more  bitter,  at  thy  call 
An  angel  face  with  plaintive  sweetness  pleads^ 

For  infant  suffering,  to  the  heart  of  all."* 

\ 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  Talfourd  was  the  original  of 
Tommy  Traddles.  I  can  find  no  proof  of  this,  but  there 
is  just  enough  internal  evidence  to  justify  suspicion,  so  to 
speak.  As  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  says,  "he  may  have  oifered 
suggestions  for  the  character."  Traddles's  lovable  ways  and 
qualities  of  friendship  may  well  have  been  taken  from  Tal- 
fourd. It  is  certainly  conceivable  that  the  latter's  elevation 
to  the  bench  just  when  the  last  numbers  of  Copperfield  were 
being  written  suggested  Traddles's  destiny  to  Dickens.  For 
though  he  has  not  yet  donned  the  ermine  when  the  book 
closes,  we  know  he  did  so  ultimately. 

In  1846  Talfourd  and  his  wife  visited  Dickens  at  Lau- 
sanne. In  1841  commenced  the  "splendid  strolling"  on 
behalf  of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole,  and  at  one  of  the 
earliest  performances — at  Manchester — Dickens  delivered  a 
prologue  written  by  Talfourd.  In  1849  this  valued  friend 
was  raised  to  the  Isench,  which,  says  Forster,  "he  adorned 
with  qualities  which  are  justly  the  pride  of  that  profession, 
and  with  accomplishments  which  have  become  more  rare  in 
its  highest  places  than  they  were  in  former  times."  And 
he  adds :  "Talfourd  assumed  nothing  with  the  ermine  but  the 
privilege  of  more  frequent  intercourse  with  the  tastes  and 
friends  he  loved,  and  he  continued  to  be  the  most  joyous 

» Another  version  of  this  Sonnet  appeared  in  The  Dickensian  in  1905. ' 


52  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

and  least  affected  of  companions.  Such  small  oddities  or 
foibles  as  he  had  made  him  secretly  only  dearer  to  Dickens, 
who  had  no  friend  he  was  more  attached  to,  and  the  many 
happy  nights  made  happier  by  the  voice  so  affluent  in  gener- 
ous words,  and  the  face  so  bright  with  ardent  sensibility, 
come  back  to  me  sorrowfully  now." 

Upon  his  elevation  Talfourd  visited  Dickens  at  Bonchurch, 
and  the  novelist  wrote  to  Forster :  "Talfourd  delightful,  and 
amuses  me  mightily.  I  am  really  quite  enraptured  at  his 
success,  and  think  of  his  happmess  with  uncommon  pleasure." 
To  that  visit  he  also  referred  in  the  Household  Words  article 
from  which  I  have  already  quoted: 

"In  the  first  joy  of  his  appointment  to  the  judicial 
bench,  he  made  a  summer's  visit  to  the  seashore,  to 
'share  his  exultation  in  the  gratification  of  his  long- 
cherished  ambition  with  the  friend' — now  among  the 
many  friends  who  m.ourn  his  death  and  lovingly  recall 
his  virtues.  Lingering  in  the  bright  moonlight  at  the 
close  of  a  happy  day,  he  spoke  of  his  new  functions, 
of  his  sense  of  the  great  responsibility  he  undertook, 
and  of  his  placid  belief  that  the  habits  of  his  profes- 
sional life  rendered  liim  equal  to  their  efficient  discharge; 
but,  above  all,  he  spoke,  with  an  earnestness  nevermore 
to  be  separated  in  his  friend's  mind  from  the  murmur 
of  the  sea  upon  a  moonlight  night,  of  his  reliance  on 
the  strength  of  his  desire  to  do  right  before  God  and 
man.  He  spoke  with  his  own  singleness  of  heart,  and 
his  solitary  hearer  knew  how  deep  and  true  his  purpose 


Among  the  earliest  public  readings  given  by  the  novelist 
was  one  at  Reading  for  Talfourd's  sake.  That  was  in  1854, 
not  long  before  liis  friend's  death.  Talfourd  was  a  native 
of  Reading,  and  he  represented  the  town  in  Parliament  from 
1835  to  1841,  and  from  1847  until  he  became  a  judge  in 
1849,  and  it  w^as  a  pleasing  thing  for  Dickens  to  respond 
to  his  friend's  appeal  to  give  a  reading  there. 

Apropos  of  the  fact  that  Talfourd  sat  for  Reading  from 
1835  to  1841,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  was  in  the 
latter  year  that  Dickens  was  approached  with  a  view  to  his 


THOMAS   NOON  TALFOURD  53 

standing  for  that  constituency.  I  have  never  seen  this  fact 
noted  before,  but  it  is  decidedly  interesting,  and  it  is  scarcely 
fanciful  to  imagine  that  Talfourd  must  have  recommended 
his  friend  as  the  man  who  might  succeed  him. 

We  may  close  with  a  story  of  a  little  joke  that  Dickens 
and  Talfourd  once  played  on  Macready.  Let  it  be  related 
in  the  actor's  own  words.  On  December  6,  1839,  he  writes, 
"Dickens  gave  me  a  play  to  read  called  'Glencoe,'  "  and  on 
the  following  day,  "Finished  the  play  of  'Glencoe,'  which  has 
so  much  to  praise  in  it."  Then,  on  December  12,  the  entry 
is  as  follows : 

"Went  to  dine  with  Talfourd.  .  .  .  Talfourd,  For- 
ster,  and  self.  After  dinner  the  conversation  turned  on 
plays.  I  mentioned  one  I  had  of  a  striking  character 
upon  a  popular  subject.  Talfourd  asked  me  the  title. 
I  told  him  'Glencoe.'  He  questioned  me  about  its  pos- 
sible melodramatic  tendency.  I  told  him  that  the  treat- 
ment avoided  the  melodrama  of  the  stage,  that  the  style 
was  an  imitation  of  his  writing,  but  without  the  point 
that  terminates  his  speeches;  that  the  story  was  well 
managed  and  dramatic,  and  that  I  intended  to  act  it. 
At  last,  to  my  utter  astonishment,  he  pulled  out  two 
books  from  his  pocket,  and  said:  'Well,  I  will  no  longer 
conceal  it — it  is  my  play' — and  he  gave  us  each  a  copy ! 
I  never  in  my  life  experienced  a  greater  surprise.  .  .  . 
I  laughed  loud  and  long." 


CHAPTER  IX 


WALTEE  SAVAGE  LANDOE 


Anothee  very  notable  friendship  that  was  formed  during 
the  time  that  Pickwick  was  appearing  in  parts  was  that  with 
Walter  Savage  Landor,  to  whom  Dickens  was  introduced  by 
Forster,  who  had  met  the  poet  in  the  summer  of  1836.  "That 
there  should  have  been  this  communion  of  sympathy  between 
two  men  of  such  widely  different  temperaments  is  a  fact  that 
can  only  be  regarded  as  extraordinary."  Thus  commented 
a  well-known  newspaper  upon  the  friendship  of  Dickens  and 
Landor  when,  in  February  1903,  memorial  tablets  to  both 
men  were  unveiled  at  Bath.  And  this  particular  newspaper 
was  not  alone ;  almost  every  leader-writer  who  dealt  with  the 
event  wrote  to  similar  effect.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  point 
of  view  arises  from  the  common  mistaken  notion  of  the  sort 
of  man  that  Landor  was.  He  certainly  was  a  very  hot- 
headed man,  but  he  was  as  certainly  a  warm-hearted  man; 
though  it  is  true  that  he  was  often  wrong-headed,  it  is  also 
true  that  he  was  always  right-hearted.  Though  he  quar- 
relled violently  very  many  times  in  the  course  of  his  long 
life,  he  made  many  friends  who  truly  honoured  him.  There 
is  nothing  surprising  to  me  in  the  fact  that  such  a  man 
should  have  appealed  to  Dickens,  with  his  appreciation  of 
"thorough-going,  ardent,  and  sincere  earnestness,"  and  his 
ever-present  divine  sense  of  humour.  Landor's  impetuosity, 
"the  very  fury  of  his  superlatives,  which  seemed  to  go  off 
like  blank  cannons,  and  hurt  nothing,"  would  but  serve  to 
strengthen  the  appeal  that  he  would  have  for  Dickens,  who 
knew  that  he  was  "such  a  true  gentleman  in  his  manner, 
so  chivalrously  polite,  his  face  lighted  by  a  smile  of  so  much 
tenderness,"  and  that  he  "had  nothing  to  hide,  but  showed 
himself  exactly  as  he  was."  What,  after  all,  is  there  so 
extraordinary  in  the  fact  that  the  novelist  should  have  con- 
ceived an  affection  for  a  man  whom  he  could  thus  describe? 
54 


WALTER  SAVAGE  LANDOR  55 

And  that  Landor  should  have  reciprocated  the  regard  is 
no  more  remarkable.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  that  a  man  of  his  enthusiasm  for  liberty, 
hatred  of  chicanery  and  humbug,  and  fundamental  tender- 
ness, should  have  welcomed  the  entry  into  the  lists  of  so 
sturdy  a  champion  as  Charles  Dickens,  and  formed  an  admi- 
ration for  this  young  writer  who  moved  to  laughter  and  to 
tears,  and  almost  in  a  day  had  gained  the  ear  of  the  public 
in  the  cause  of  the  suffering  and  oppressed. 

Landor  was  sixty-one  years  old  before  the  first  number  of 
Pickwick  appeared.  He  was  almost  the  doyen  of  literary 
men  when  "Boz"  at  an  unusually  early  age  started  his  great 
career.  He  had  lived  through  great  and  stirring  and  epoch- 
making  events,  which  had  already  receded  into  history;  to 
Dickens  he  must  have  seemed  like  the  survivor  of  a  past 
heroic  age.  On  the  novelist's  side  there  were  reverence  and 
enthusiasm  for  a  "grand  old  man" ;  on  Landor's  there  was 
a  whole-hearted  welcome  for  a  young  writer  who  promised 
to  carry  on  the  great  fight  against  oppression  and  corrup- 
tion, that  he  himself  had  waged  all  his  life,  and  whose  earnest- 
ness and  frank  joy  of  life  must  have  had  an  irresistible  appeal 
for  him.  There  was,  in  short,  a  mutual  admiration  that 
developed  into  genuine  affection,  almost  as  of  parent  and 
child. 

The  poet's  first  message  to  Dickens  is  recorded  bj^  Forster 
as  having  been  entrusted  to  him  in  April  1839:  "Tell  him  he 
has  drawn  from  me  more  tears  and  more  smiles  than  are 
remaining  to  me  for  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  real  or  ideal." 
The  friendship  quickly  ripened,  and  on  Landor's  next  birth- 
day— January  30,  1840 — Dickens  and  Forster,  with  Mrs. 
Dickens,  and  also  Maclise,  visited  the  old  man  at  Bath,  where 
he  was  then  living.  This  visit  is,  of  course,  historic,  because 
it  was  marked  by  the  birth  of  the  idea  which  subsequently 
took  the  form  of  Little  Nell.  It  was  a  happy  circumstance, 
for,  as  Forster  tells  us,  "No  character  in  prose  fiction  was 
a  greater  favourite  with  Landor.  He  thought  that  upon  her, 
Juliet  might  for  a  moment  have  turned  her  eyes  from  Romeo 
and  that  Desdemona  might  have  taken  her  hair-breadth 
escapes  to  heart,  so  interesting  and  pathetic  did  she  seem  to 
him."  In  lines  which  he  addressed  to  Dickens  in  "The 
Examiner"  in  1844,  Landor  wrote: 


56  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

J' Write  me  few  letters;  I'm  content  ■ 
With  what  for  all  the  world  is  meant; 
Write  then,  for  all;   but  since  my  breast 
Is  far  more  faithful  than  the  rest, 
Never  shall  any  other  sharej[ 
With  little  Nelly  nestling  there." 

Forster  adds  that  when  the  circumstance  referred  to  was 
mentioned  to  Landor  some  years  later  "he  broke  into  one  of 
those  whimsical  bursts  of  extravagance  out  of  which  arose 
the  fancy  of  Boythorn.  With  tremendous  emphasis  he  con- 
firmed the  fact,  and  added  that  he  had  never  in  his  life  re- 
gretted anything  so  much  as  his  having  failed  to  carry  out 
an  intention  he  had  formed  respecting  it;  for  he  meant  to 
have  purchased  that  house,  35  St.  James's  Square,  and  then 
and  there  to  have  burnt  it  to  the  ground,  to  the  end  that  no 
meaner  association  should  ever  desecrate  the  birthplace  of 
Nell.  Then,"  adds  the  biographer,  "he  would  pause  a  little, 
become  conscious  of  his  absurdity,  and  break  into  a  thunder- 
ing peal  of  laughter." 

For  many  years  Dickens  and  Forster  travelled  to  Bath  on 
January  30,  to  help  to  make  their  friend  happy  on  his  birth- 
day, and  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  has  told  us  something  about  the 
visit  of  1849 — Landor's  75th  birthday.  "Dickens,"  she  says, 
"was  bright,  gay,  and  winsome,  and  while  treating  Mr.  Lan- 
dor with  the  respect  of  a  younger  man  for  an  older,  allowed 
his  wit  to  play  about  him,  bright  and  harmless  as  summer 
lightning." 

According  to  Forster,  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  Landor 
spoke  of  the  many  tears  that  David  Copperjield  had  caused 
him  to  shed,  "to  which  the  author  of  that  delightful  book 
himself  replied  by  a  question,  which,  from  so  powerful  and 
so  gentle  a  master  of  both  laughter  and  tears,  startled  us. 
.  .  .  'But  is  it  not  yet  more  wonderful  that  one  of  the  most 
popular  books  on  earth  has  absolutely  nothing  in  it  to  cause 
any  one  either  to  laugh  or  cry?'  "  The  reference  was  to 
"Robinson  Crusoe."  Here  Forster's  memory  obviously 
played  him  false.  This  conversation  is  reported  as  having 
taken  place  in  1849,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  Forster  is  re- 
calling a  conversation  which  took  place  seven  years  later, 
and  at  which  Landor  was  not  present.  This  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  Dickens  wrote  the  following  letter  to  the  poet 
on  July  5,  1856: 


WALTER  SAVAGE  LANDOR  57 

".  .  .1  have  just  been  propounding  to  Forster,  if 
it  is  not  a  wonderful  testimony  to  the  homely  force  of 
truth,  that  one  of  the  most  popular  books  on  earth  has 
nothing  in  it  to  make  any  one  laugh  or  cry  ?  Yet  I  think, 
with  some  confidence,  that  you  never  did  either  over  any 
passage  in  'Robinson  Crusoe.'  In  particular  I  took 
Friday's  death  as  one  of  the  least  tender,  and  (in  the 
true  sense)  least  sentimental  things  ever  written.  It  is 
a  book  I  read  very  much;  and  the  wonder  of  its  pro- 
digious effect  on  me  and  every  one,  and  the  admiration 
thereof,  grows  on  me  the  more  I  observe  tliis  curious 
fact." 

After  Landor  left  Bath  ^  those  birthday  parties  ceased  to 
be,  and  when  Dickens  visited  the  city  in  1869,  poor  in  health, 
there  was  sadness  in  remembrance.  "Landor's  ghost,"  he 
wrote  to  Forster,  "goes  along  the  silent  streets  here  before 
me.  ,  .  .  The  place  looks  to  me  like  a  cemetery  which  the 
Dead  have  succeeded  in  rising  and  taking.  Having  built 
streets  of  their  old  gravestones,  they  wander  about  scantily 
trying  to  'look  alive.'    A  dead  failure." 

Shortly  after  that  first  visit  to  Landor  at  Bath,  in  1840, 
Forster  was  amused  to  receive  from  the  poet,  with  the  query, 
"What  on  earth  does  it  all  mean.?"  a  letter  which  Dickens 
had  written  to  him: 

"Society  is  unhinged  here  (wrote  the  novelist)  by  her 
Majesty's  marriage,  and  I  am  sorry  to  add  that  I  have 
fallen  hopelessly  in  love  with  the  Queen,  and  wander  up 
and  down  with  vague  and  dismal  thoughts  of  running 
away  to  some  uninhabited  island  with  a  maid  of  honour, 
to  be  entrapped  by  conspiracy  for  that  purpose.  Can 
you  suggest  any  particular  young  person,  serving  in 
such  a  capacity,  who  would  suit  me?  It  is  too  much, 
perhaps,  to  ask  you  to  join  the  band  of  noble  youths 
(Forster  is  in  it  and  Maclise)  who  are  to  assist  me  in 
this  great  enterprise,  but  a  man  of  your  energy  would 
be  invaluable.  I  have  my  eye  upon  Lady  ,  prin- 
cipally because  she  is  very  beautiful  and  has  no  strong 
brothers.     Upon  tliis,  and  other  points  of  the  scheme, 

» He  returned  to  the  City  some  years  later,  but  not  to  St.  James's  Square. 


58  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

however,  we  will  confer  more  at  large  when  we  meet; 
and  meanwhile  burn  this  document,  that  no  suspicion 
ma}^  arise  or  rumour  get  abroad."  ^ 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  that  Landor  should  have 
been  puzzled  by  the  receipt  of  such  an  eifusion !  It  was  all 
a  wildly  irresponsible  joke,  of  course,  "encouraged,"  Forster 
records,  "to  such  whimsical  lengths  not  alone  b}'^  him,  but 
(under  his  influence)  by  the  two  friends  named,  that  it  took 
the  wildest  forms  of  humorous  extravagance."  But  it  must 
have  been  sadly  bewildering  to  poor  Landor ! 

In  1841  Dickens  gave  the  poet  marked  proof  of  the  esteem 
in  which  he  held  him,  b}'^  inviting  him  to  act  as  godfather 
to  his  second  son.  And  he  conveyed  the  invitation  in  a  letter 
that  must  have  sent  a  glow  through  the  old  man's  heart. 
It  would  give  the  child  something  to  boast  of,  to  be  called 
Walter  Landor,  he  wrote,  and  to  call  him  so  would  do  his 
own  heart  good.  For,  as  to  himself,  whatever  realities  had 
gone  out  of  the  ceremony  of  christening,  the  meaning  still 
remained  in  it  of  enabling  him  to  form  a  relationship  with 
friends  he  most  loved;  and  as  to  the  boy,  he  held  that  to 
give  him  a  name  to  be  proud  of  was  to  give  him  also  another 
reason  for  doing  nothing  unworthy  or  untinie  when  he  came 
to  be  a  man. 

In  December  of  that  year  the  christening  took  place,  and 
Landor  came  up  from  Bath  for  the  event.  "We  had  some 
days  of  much  enjoyment,"  says  Forster.  The  poet  always 
took  a  keen  interest  in  his  godson's  progress,  one  of  his  most 
winning  qualities  being  his  love  of  children.  In  1851,  when 
Dickens  was  engaged  in  that  "splendid  strolling,"  with  the 
famous  company  of  distinguished  amateur  actors,  he  wrote 
to  his  wife  from  Clifton  as  follows :  "I  saw  old  Landor  at 
Bath,  who  has  bronchitis.  When  he  was  last  in  town,  Ken- 
yon  drove  him  about,  by  God,  half  the  morning,  under  a 
most  damnable  pretence  of  taking  him  to  where  Walter  was 
at  school,  and  they  never  found  the  confounded  house!  He 
had  in  his  pocket  on  that  occasion  a  souvenir  for  Walter  in 
the  form  of  a  Union  shirt  pin,  which  is  now  in  my  possession, 
and  shall  be  duly  brought  home." 

1  About  eighteen  years  ago,  I  saw  this  letter  quoted  quite  seriously  in  a 
London  newspaper  as  evidence  of  Dickens's  occasional  lack  of  mental  balance! 


WALTER  SAVAGE  LANDOR  59 

In  1852  Dickens  paid  his  friend  another  compliment  by 
painting  a  full-length  portrait  of  him  in  Bleak  House — a 
portrait  of  him  as  he  was  when  they  were  first  acquainted, 
and  undoubtedly  as  accurate  a  portrait  as  was  ever  produced 
of  any  man. 

"We  all  conceived  a  prepossession  in  his  favour,"  says 
Esther  Summerson,  "for  there  was  a  sterling  quality  in 
his  laugh,  and  in  his  vigorous  healthy  voice,  and  in  the 
roundness  and  fullness  with  which  he  uttered  every  word 
he  spoke,  and  in  the  very  fury  of  his  superlatives, 
which  seemed  to  go  off  like  blank  cannons  and  hurt 
nothing.  But  we  were  hardly  prepared  to  have  it  so 
confirmed  by  his  appearance,  when  Mr.  Jarndyce  pre- 
sented him.  He  was  not  only  a  very  handsome  old 
gentleman — upright  and  stalwart  as  he  had  been  de- 
scribed to  us — with  a  massive  grey  head,  a  fine  com- 
posure of  face  when  silent,  a  figure  that  might  have 
become  corpulent  but  for  his  being  so  continually  in 
earnest  that  he  gave  it  no  rest,  and  a  chin  that  might 
have  subsided  into  a  double  chin  but  for  the  vehement 
emphasis  in  which  it  was  constantly  required  to  assist; 
but  he  was  such  a  true  gentleman  in  his  manner,  so 
chivalrously  polite,  his  face  was  lighted  by  a  smile  of 
so  much  sweetness  and  tenderness,  and  it  seemed  so 
plain  that  he  had  nothing  to  hide,  but  showed  himself 
exactly  as  he  was — incapable  ...  of  anything  on  a 
limited  scale,  and  firing  away  with  those  blank  great 
guns,  because  he  carried  no  small  arms  whatever — that 
really  I  could  not  help  looking  at  him  with  equal  pleas- 
ure as  he  sat  at  dinner,  whether  he  smilingly  conversed 
with  Ada  and  me,  or  was  led  by  Mr.  Jarndyce  into 
some  great  volley  of  superlatives,  or  threw  up  his  head 
like  a  bloodhound,  and  gave  out  that  tremendous 
ha,  ha,  ha!" 

And  not  only  in  regard  to  the  broad  outline  of  the  char- 
acter did  Dickens  draw  upon  his  knowledge  of  his  friend. 
One  very  important  event  in  Landor's  life  is  given  with  a 
disguise  that  must  have  been  far  from  impenetrable  to  the 
poet's  friends.    We  all  remember  the  dispute  that  Boythom 


GO  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

had  with  his  neighbour,  Sir  Leicester  Dedlock,  at  Chesney 
Wold. 

"  'But  how  do  you  and  your  neighbour  get  on  about 
the  disputed  right  of  way?'  said  Mr.  Jarndyce. 

"  'By  my  soul !'  exclaimed  Mr.  Boythorn,  suddenly 
firing  another  volley,  'that  fellow  is,  and  his  father  was, 
and  his  grandfather  was,  the  most  stiff-necked,  arro- 
gant, imbecile,  pig-headed,  numskull,  ever,  by  some  in- 
explicable mistake  of  nature,  born  in  any  station  of 
life  but  a  walking-stick's!  The  whole  of  that  family 
are  the  most  solemnly  conceited  and  consummate  block- 
heads !  But  it's  no  matter ;  he  should  not  shut  up  my 
path  if  he  were  fifty  baronets  melted  into  one,  and  liv- 
ing in  a  hundred  Chesney  Wolds,  one  within  another, 
like  the  ivory  balls  in  a  Chinese  carving.  The  fellow, 
by  his  agent,  or  secretary,  or  somebody  writes  to  me, 
"Sir  Leicester  Dedlock,  Baronet,  presents  his  compli- 
ments to  Mr.  Lawrence  Bo3^thorn,  and  has  to  call  his 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  green  pathway  by  the 
old  parsonage  house,  now  the  property  of  Mr.  Law- 
rence Boythorn,  is  Sir  Leicester's  right  of  way,  being 
in  fact  a  portion  of  the  park  of  Chesney  Wold;  and 
that  Sir  Leicester  finds  it  convenient  to  close  up  the 
same."  I  write  to  the  fellow,  "Mr.  Lawrence  Boythorn 
presents  his  compliments  to  Sir  Leicester  Dedlock, 
Baronet,  and  has  to  call  Jiis  attention  to  the  fact  that 
he  totally  denies  the  whole  of  Sir  Leicester  Dedlock's 
positions  on  every  possible  subject,  and  has  to  add,  in 
reference  to  closing  up  the  pathway,  that  he  will  be 
glad  to  see  the  man  who  may  undertake  to  do  it."  The 
fellow  sends  a  most  abandoned  villain  with  one  eye,  to 
construct  a  gateway.  I  play  upon  that  execrable 
scoundrel  with  a  fire-engine,  until  the  breath  is  nearly 
driven  out  of  his  body.  The  fellow  erects  a  gate  in 
the  night,  I  chop  it  down  and  burn  it  in  the  morning. 
He  sends  his  myrmidons  to  come  over  the  fence,  and 
pass  and  repass.  I  catch  them  in  humane  man-traps, 
fire  split  peas  at  their  legs,  play  upon  them  with  the 
engine — resolve    to    free    mankind    from    the    insup- 


WALTER  SAVAGE  LANDOR  61 

portable  burden  of  the  existence  of  those  lurking 
ruffians.  He  brings  actions  for  trespass:  I  bring 
actions  for  trespass.  He  brings  actions  for  assault  and 
battery;  I  defend  them,  and  continue  to  assault  and 
batter.    Ha,  ha,  ha !" 

Forster  relates  several  stories  of  Landor's  quarrels  with 
his  neighbours  at  Llanthony,  in  Monmouthshire,  and  in  those 
stories  there  are  many  touches  which  might  have  been  taken 
from  the  pages  of  Bleak  House.  Here,  for  instance,  is 
an  extract  from  a  letter  of  Landor's  relating  to  the  troubles 
he  had  with  one  of  his  tenants.  The  man  referred  to  de- 
served the  vituperation  heaped  upon  him,  it  may  be  said, 
but  the  point  is  that  the  whole  passage  is  entirely  in  the 
Boythorn  spirit. 

"I  have  mentioned  only  a  few  instances  of  this  fel- 
low's roguery  and  ingratitude;  but  enough  for  you  to 
judge  of  him.  All  his  brothers — three  certainly — have 
abandoned  every  visible  means  of  procuring  an  honest 
livelihood,  and  are  with  him;  although  his  poor  labour- 
ers are  starving,  and  he  has  actually  borrowed  money 
from  them.  In  fact,  he  thinks  it  more  reputable  to  be 
convicted  of  roguery  than  suspected  of  poverty.  He 
has  embezzled  the  money  I  allowed  for  the  repairs  of 
the  house,  because  I  insisted  on  no  written  agreement 
and  relied  on  his  honour.  He  has  discharged  me  and 
my  gamekeeper  from  shooting  on  his  farm." 

Some  time  before  that  Landor,  in  view  of  the  obvious  need 
that  existed  for  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  his  district,  ap- 
pealed to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  to 
recommend  him  for  the  Commission.  The  Duke  declined, 
and  Landor  wrote  to  Lord  Chancellor  Eldon.  Here  is  an 
extract  from  the  letter: 

"When  the  Duke  of  Beaufort  thought  proper  to  de- 
cline my  offer,  I  wrote  again  to  him  with  perfect 
temper,  and  requested  him  to  appoint  one  better  quali- 
fied. He  had  no  reply  to  make.  .  .  .  What  honour 
it  will  confer  on  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  have  rejected 


62  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

the  public  and  gratuitous  service  of  such  a  man,  is 
worth  his  consideration  rather  than  mine.  It  certainly 
will  bestow  on  him  a  more  lasting  celebrity  than  any 
other  Duke  of  Beaufort  has  acquired.  I  did  not  believe 
him  to  have  been  so  ambitious.  But  if  it  should  apjoear 
that  any  Lord  Lieutenant  has  erred  in  pursuing  game 
by  a  track  so  unfrequented  and  so  cheerless,  your  lord- 
ship at  least  has  the  power  of  preventing  the  ill  con- 
sequences which  would  arise  from  his  stupid  precipi- 
tancy or  his  unruly  passion.  .  .  .  It  is  possible  that 
a  Lord  Lieutenant  may  have  been  instructed  in  little 
else  than  in  the  worming  of  hounds,  the  entrapping  of 
polecats,  the  baiting  or  worrying  of  badgers  and  foxes ; 
that  he  may  be  a  perverse,  and  ignorant,  and  imbecile 
man ;  that  he  may  be  the  passive  and  transferable  tool 
of  every  successive  administration ;  and  that  he  may 
consider  all  whose  occupations  are  more  becoming,  the 
gentleman  and  the  scholar  who  is  wiser  or  more  inde- 
pendent than  himself,  as  a  standing  and  living  re- 
proach." 

Does  not  Boythorn  himself  speak  here? 

Dickens  pictures  many  of  Landor's  most  winning  traits. 
Every  reader  will  remember  Boythorn's  pet  canary  which 
would  be  perched  on  his  master's  forehead,  or  on  his  finger 
eating  out  of  his  hand,  what  time  he  would  be  pouring  out 
the  most  tremendous  denunciations  in  the  most  thunderous 
of  voices.  Well,  it  is  all  a  transcript  from  life.  As  one  of 
Landor's  friends  wrote:  "He  was  an  enthusiastic  friend, 
and  as  far  as  sound  violence,  and  unmeasured  vituperation 
went,  a  bitter  hater ;  but  beyond  unsparing  vituperation,  he 
would  not  have  injured  an  enemy.  He  would  certainly  not 
have  lent  a  hand  to  crush  him."  And  another  friend  wrote: 
"He  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  violent  man.  .  .  .  But 
I  never  saw  anything  but  the  greatest  gentleness  and  cour- 
tesy in  him,  especially  to  women."  In  almost  similar  words 
Esther  Summerson  writes  of  Boythorn  over  and  over  again. 
And  if  Boythorn  had  his  canary,  Landor  had  his  dormice 
and  his  pet  dog.  The  latter — a  Pomeranian  named  Pomero 
— was  his  especial  favourite  for  many  years.  "By  Heaven," 
says  Boythorn,  he  is  the  most  astonishing  bird  in  Europe! 


WALTER  SAVAGE  LANDOR  63 

He  is  tlie  most  wonderful  creature!  I  wouldn't  take  ten 
thousand  guineas  for  that  bird.  I  have  left  an  annuity 
for  his  sole  support,  in  case  he  should  outlive  me.  He  is, 
in  sense  and  attachment,  a  phenomenon.  ' 

Writes  Landor  to  Forster :  "Pomero  was  on  my  knee  when 
your  letter  came.  He  is  now  looking  out  of  the  window; 
a  sad  male  gossip  as  I  often  tell  him.  I  dare  not  take 
him  with  me  to  London.  He  would  most  certainly  be  stolen, 
and  I  would  rather  lose  Ipsley  or  Llanthony."  And  when 
a  lady  asked  him  if  he  would  care  to  part  with  the  dog,  he 
replied,  "No,  madam,  not  for  a  million  of  money!"  'Wof 
for  a  million!"  she  exclained.  "Not  for  a  million,"  he  added. 
"A  million  would  not  make  me  at  all  happier,  and  the  loss 
of  Pomero  would  make  me  miserable  for  life." 

In  1853  we  find  Dickens  acknowledging  a  dedication  in 
these  terms: 

"My  Dear  Landor, 

"I  am  in  town  for  a  day  or  two,  and  Forster 
tells  me  I  may  now  write  to  thank  you  for  the  happi- 
ness you  have  given  me  by  honouring  my  name  with 
such  generous  mention,  on  such  a  noble  place,  in  your 
great  book.  .  .  .  You  know  how  heartily  and  inex- 
pressibly I  prize  what  you  have  written  to  me,  or  you 
never  would  have  selected  me  for  such  a  distinction.  I 
could  never  thank  you  enough,  my  dear  Landor,  and 
I  will  not  thank  ^''ou  in  words,  any  more.  Believe  me, 
I  receive  the  dedication  like  a  great  dignity,  the  worth 
of  which  I  hope  I  thorouglily  know.  The  Queen  could 
give  me  none  in  exchange  that  I  wouldn't  laughingly 
snap  my  fingers  at." 

Landor  spent  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  in  Italy,  and 
in  one  of  the  last  letters  he  wrote  from  Florence  he  sent 
his  love  to  "noble  Dickens."  The  friends  had  met  for  the 
last  time  just  before  his  departure  in  1858,  which  was  in 
consequence  of  a  libel  action  in  which  the  old  man  had  got 
himself  embroiled  at  Bath.  Passing  through  London,  he 
stayed  a  night  at  Forster's  house.  Dickens  was  of  the  party 
there  to  meet  him,  but  Landor  did  not  join  the  company. 
Dickens  left  the  room  to  greet  his  friend.     "I  thought," 


64  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

wrote  one  of  the  company,  "that  Landor  would  talk  over 
with  him  the  unpleasant  crisis ;  and  I  shall  never  forget  my 
amazement  when  Dickens  came  back  into  the  room  laughing, 
and  said  that  he  had  found  him  very  jovial,  and  that  his 
whole  conversation  was  upon  the  character  of  CatuUus, 
Tibullus,  and  other  Latin  poets." 

Landor  died  in  1864,  and  in  All  the  Year  Round  Dickens 
paid  a  tribute  to  his  memory  in  a  review  of  Forster's  biog- 
raphy of  their  "mutual  friend." 

"In  a  military  burial-ground  in  India,  the  name  of 
Walter  Landor  is  associated  with  the  present  writer's 
over  the  grave  of  a  young  officer.  No  name  could 
stand  there,  more  inseparably  associated  in  the  writer's 
mind  with  the  dignity  of  generosity ;  with  a  noble  scorn 
of  all  littleness,  all  cruelty,  oppression,  fraud,  and  false 
pretence." 

Twenty  years  before,  Dickens,  about  to  journey  to  Italy, 
had  asked  Landor  what  he  would  most  wish  to  have  in  re- 
membrance of  that  land,  and  he  had  been  told  "An  ivy  leaf 
from  Fiesole."  Dickens  had  plucked  a  leaf  and  sent  it  to 
the  poet  "with  his  love."  When  Landor  died,  that  ivy  leaf 
was  found  among  his  treasures. 


CHAPTER  X 

"dear  old  mac" 

Young  Dickens — still  not  twenty-six  years  old — was  now 
fairly  launched  on  the  sea  of  success.  Instantaneously 
almost,  he  had  sprung  right  into  the  front  rank.  At  a  bound 
he  had  become  the  most  popular  author  that  England  had 
ever  known.  How  popular  he  was  has  been  told  by  many, 
and  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  recount  it  yet  again;  but  it  is 
true  to  say  that  his  name  was  a  household  word.  He  had 
awakened  to  find  himself  famous,  his  name  on  everybody's 
lips,  he  himself  sought  after  by  the  most  famous  men  of  the 
time,  who  a  bare  two  years  ago  had  not  heard  of  his  exist- 
ence, with  whom,  two  years  previously,  he  could  scarcely 
have  dared  to  dream  that  he  might  ever  be  on  speaking 
terms.  Yet  here  he  was  already  on  intimate  terms  with 
Ainsworth  and  Macready  and  Landor,  and  forming  new 
friends  as  brilliant  and  as  famous  almost  daily.  Among 
these  Daniel  Maclise  was  the  favourite.  For  years  he  played 
a  very  big  part  in  Dickens's  life,  and  a  rare  friendship 
existed.  They  were  to  drift  apart  to  some  extent  in  after 
years,  but  there  was  to  be  no  quarrel  or  ill-feeling.  Maclisp 
was  to  meet  with  disappointment  and  injustice  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  art,  and  it  was  to  lead  him  into  a  waywardness  (as 
Dickens  called  it)  which  was  to  cause  him  to  drift  out  of  the 
circle  of  friends  who  held  him  in  such  true  esteem,  but  there 
was  to  be  no  real  rupture  of  the  friendship  with  Boz.  The 
affection  which  was  formed  in  the  beginning  was  to  last  until 
the  end. 

In  the  early  days,  when  eachi  was  in  the  first  flush  of  his 
success,  when  hearts  were  young,  and  every  month  was  May, 
they,  with  Forster,  spent  many  happy  hours.  Other  friends 
were  with  them  sometimes — Ainsworth  most  often — but  these 
three  were  "choice  spirits,"  and  every  one  who  knew  them 
at  this  time,  tells  how  inseparable  they  were,  and  how  they 
gave  themselves  up,  heart  and  soul,  to  the  enjoyment  of  life's 
65 


66  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

morning.  Scarcely  a  day  passed  but  they  met;  scarcely  a 
day  but  they  were  off  riding  or  tramping  together.  Some- 
times one  would  tempt  the  others ;  sometimes  two  would  con- 
spire to  tempt  the  third.     As  thus: 

"Mr.  John  Forster  (of  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields),  and 
Mr.  Charles  Dickens  (of  universal  popularity),  request 
the  favour  of  Mr.  Maclise's  company  at  supper,  at  the 
Parthenon  Club  to-night  at  half-past  ten  precisely. 

"Thinking  it  possible  that  INIr.  Maclise  may  have  gone 
to  Court  at  an  earl}'^  hour  this  morning,  they  address 
this  letter  both  to  his  private  house  and  to  the  Athe- 
naeum ;  and  but  for  the  veneration  due  to  their  youthful 
sovereign,  they  would  forward  a  duplicate  to  the  Palace 
at  Pimlico." 

All  records  tell  us  that  Maclise — this  "dear  and  familiar 
friend" — must  have  been  a  glorious  companion  at  this  time — 
a  companion  after  Boz's  own  heart.  Handsome,  brilliant, 
lo^^al,  full  of  buoyant  animal  spirits,  and  yet  with  a  full 
appreciation  of  the  seriousness  of  life,  he  was  a  soul  very 
much  akin  to  Dickens.  Forster,  in  describing  the  summer 
spent  by  the  novelist  at  Twickenham  in  1838,  tells  us:  ".  .  , 
the  social  charm  of  Maclise  was  seldom  wanting,  nor  was 
there  anything  that  exercised  a  greater  fascination  over 
Dickens  than  the  grand  enjoyment  of  idleness,  the  ready  self- 
abandonment  to  the  luxury  of  laziness,  which  we  both  so 
laughed  at  in  Maclise,  under  whose  easy  swing  of  indif- 
ference, always  the  most  amusing  at  the  most  aggravating 
events  and  times,  we  knew  that  there  was  artist-work  as 
eager,  energy  as  unwearying,  and  observation  almost  as  pene- 
trating as  Dickens's  own." 

And  he  adds,  "A  greater  enjoyment  than  the  fellowship  of 
INfaclise  at  this  period  it  would  bo  difficult  to  imagine. 
Dickens  hardly  saw  more  than  he  did,  while  yet  he  seemed 
to  be  seeing  nothnir^,  and  the  small  esteem  in  which  this  rare 
faculty  was  held  by  himself,  a  quaint  oddity  that  in  him 
gave  to  shrewdness  itself  an  air  of  Irish  simplicity,  his  un- 
questionable turn  for  literature,  and  a  varied  knowlcdi^c  of 
books  not  always  connected  with  such  love  and  such  un- 
wearied practice  of  one  special  and  absorbing  art,  combinod^ 


\'^ 


Daniel  Maclise,  R.A. 


"DEAR  OLD  MAC"  67 

to  render  him  attractive  far  beyond  the  common.  His  fine 
genius  and  his  handsome  person,  of  neither  of  which  he 
seemed  himself  to  be  in  the  slightest  degree  conscious,  com- 
pleted the  charm." 

It  is  scarce  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  not  even  Forster 
himself  was  better  loved  in  the  early  days  than  Maclise,  and 
there  is  something  peculiarly  sad  in  the  record  of  the  artist's 
cares  and  disappointments,  causing  him  gradually  to  change 
his  habits,  until  he  "shut  himself  up  within  himself,"  and 
drifted  away  from  the  friends  who  loved  him  so  well. 

But  "sufficient  unto  the  day "     Let  us  not  leave  those 

early  days  yet.  Dickens  spent  the  summer  of  1839'  at  Peter- 
sham, and  here,  we  read,  he  and  Maclise  were  the  most  prom- 
inent in  all  sorts  of  sports.  "Bar-leaping,  bowling,  and 
quoits,"  says  Forster,  "were  among  the  games  carried  on  with 
the  greatest  ardour.  .  .  .  Even  the  lighter  recreations  of 
battledore  and  bagatelle  were  pursued  with  relentless 
energy." 

Of  course,  Maclise  was  present  at  the  dinner  given  to 
Macready  in  1839,  over  which  Dickens  presided.  In  this 
same  year,  too,  he  was  one  of  the  company  that  gathered 
at  The  Albion  to  celebrate  the  completion  of  Nicholas 
Nicklehy.  It  was  a  happy  thought  of  those  concerned  to 
hang  his  recently  executed  portrait  of  Dickens  in  the  room. 
This,  of  course,  was  the  painting  known  as  the  "Nickleby 
portrait,"  which  now  hangs  in  its  rightful  place,  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery.  It  was  bequeathed  to  the  nation  by  Sir 
E.  R.  Jodrell,  who  bought  it  at  the  Gad's  Hill  sale  in'l870 
for  £693.  There  are  many  portraits  of  the  novelist  in  exist- 
ence, but  it  is  the  unanimous  testimony  of  all  who  knew  him 
at  this  time,  that  this  is  by  far  the  best.  As  a  likeness,  said 
Thackeray,  "it  is  perfectly  amazing;  a  looking-glass  could 
not  render  a  better  facsimile.  Here  we  have  the  real  identical 
man,  Dickens ;  the  artist  must  have  understood  the  inward 
Boz  as  well  as  the  outward,  before  he  made  this  admirable 
representation  of  him."  It  was  painted  for  Messrs.  Chap- 
man &  Hall  for  reproduction  as  a  frontispiece  to  the  first 
volume  edition  of  Nickleby,  and  after  it  had  been  duly  en- 
graved for  that  purpose,  it  was  presented  by  the  publishers 
to  Dickens — a  graceful  act.  It  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal 
Academy  in  1840. 


68  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

In  1840  Maclise  accompanied  Dickens  and  his  wife  and 
Forster  to  Bath,  on  that  visit  to  Landor,  during  which 
Dickens  first  conceived  the  idea  of  Little  Nell.  This  was 
but  one  of  many  trips  in  which  IMadise  accompanied  the 
novehst.  In  April  of  this  same  year,  for  instance,  the  launch- 
ing of  Master  Humphret/'s  Clock  was  celebrated  by  a  trip 
to  Stratford-on-Avon.  The  party  was  the  same  that  had 
visited  Bath.  The  Clock  met  with  a  huge  sale,  and  so  the 
holiday  was  extended  somewhat,  Litchfield  being  visited  as 
well  as  Shakespeare's  native  town.  In  the  same  year,  Maclise 
and  Forster  met  Dickens  on  his  way  back  from  Broadstairs, 
where  he  had  spent  the  summer,  and  they  "passed  two  agree- 
able days  in  re-visiting  well-remembered  scenes"  at  Chat- 
ham, Rochester,  and  Cobham. 

Naturally  Maclise  was  to  the  fore  in  welcoming  Dickens 
home  from  America  in  1842.  "By  the  sound  of  his  cheery 
voice,"  says  Forster,  "I  first  knew  that  he  was  come,  and 
from  my  house  we  went  together  to  INIaclise,  also  without  a 
moment's  warning."  "Dear  old  Mac"  was  present  at  the 
Greenwich  dinner,  of  course,  but,  sa^'s  Forster,  "the  most 
special  celebration  was  reserved  for  the  autumn,  when,  by 
way  of  challenge  to  what  he  had  seen  while  abroad,  a  home 
journey  was  arranged  with  Stanfield,  Maclise,  and  myself  for 
his  companions,  into  such  of  the  most  striking  scenes  of  a 
picturesque  English  count}^  as  the  majority  of  us  might  not 
before  have  visited;  Cornwall  being  ultimately  chosen." 

The  trip  duly  came  off,  and  surely  never  did  four  school- 
boys let  loose  for  the  holidays  have  a  more  rollicking  time. 
Three  weeks  the  tour  lasted,  and  in  that  time  "land  and  sea 
yielded  each  its  marvels  to  us." 

"Blessed  star  of  morning,"  wrote  Dickens  to  Prof. 
Felton,  "such  a  trip  as  we  had  into  Cornwall.  .  .  . ! 
.  .  .  We  went  down  into  Devonshire  by  railroad,  and 
there  we  hired  an  open  carriage,  from  an  innkeeper, 
patriotic  in  all  Pickwick  matters,  and  went  on  with  post 
horses.  Sometimes  we  travelled  all  night,  sometimes  all 
day,  sometimes  both.  I  kept  the  joint-stock  purse, 
ordered  all  the  dinners,  paid  all  the  turnpikes,  conducted 
facetious  conversations  with  the  postboys,  and  regu- 
lated the  pace  at  Avhich  we  travelled,  .  .  .  and  Maclise, 


Charles  Dickens 

(1839) 
Encjravtng   by  Finden   of  a  Paintinff   by   Daniel  Mnclise,   R.A. 


"DEAR  OLD  MAC"  69 

having  nothing  particular  to  do,  sang  songs.  Heavens ! 
If  you  could  have  seen  the  necks  of  bottles  .  .  .  peer- 
ing out  of  the  carriage  pockets !  ...  If  you  could  have 
followed  us  into  the  earthy  old  churches  we  visited,  and 
into  the  strange  caverns  on  the  gloomy  seashore,  and 
down  into  the  depths  of  mines,  and  up  to  the  tops  of 
giddy  heights  where  the  unspeakably  green  water  was 
roaring,  I  don't  know  how  many  hundred  feet  below! 
If  you  could  have  seen  but  one  gleam  of  the  bright 
fires  by  which  we  sat  in  the  big  rooms  of  ancient  inns 
at  night,  until  long  after  the  small  hours  had  come  and 
gone,  or  smelt  but  one  steam  of  the  hot  punch  .  .  . 
which  came  in  every  evening  in  a  huge  broad  china  bowl ! 
I  never  laughed  in  my  life  as  I  did  on  this  journey.  It 
would  have  done  you  good  to  hear  me.  I  was  choking 
and  gasping  and  bursting  the  buckle  off  the  back  of 
my  stock,  all  the  way.  .  .  .  Seriously,  I  do  believe  there 
was  never  such  a  trip.  And  they  made  such  sketches, 
those  two  men,  in  the  most  romantic  of  our  halting- 
places,  that  you  would  have  sworn  we  had  the  Spirit  of 
Beauty  with  us,  as  well  as  the  Spirit  of  Fun." 

Maclise's  principal  contribution  to  the  artistic  products 
of  the  tour  was  "The  Nymph  of  the  Waterfall."  For  the 
figure  of  the  nymph.  Miss  Georgina  Hogarth  posed;  the 
waterfall  was  that  of  St.  Knighton.  This  picture  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  Academy  in  1843,  and  Forster  tells  us  that 
"so  eager  was  Dickens  to  possess  this  landscape  .  .  .  yet  so 
anxious  that  our  friend  should  be  spared  the  sacrifice  which 
he  knew  would  follow  an  avowal  of  his  wish,  that  he  bought 
it  under  a  feigned  name  before  the  Academy  opened,  and 
steadily  refused  to  take  back  the  money  which  on  discovery 
of  the  artifice  Maclise  pressed  upon  him."  The  artist,  indeed, 
returned  Dickens's  cheque,  with  the  following  letter: 

"My  Dear  Dickens, 

"How  could  you  think  of  sending  me  a  cheque 
for  what  was  to  me  a  matter  of  gratification?  I  am 
almost  inclined  to  be  offended  with  you.  May  I  not  be 
permitted  to  give  some  proof  of  the  value  I  attach  to 
your  friendship.''    I  return  the  cheque  with  regret  that 


70  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

you  should  have  thought  it  necessary  to  send  it  to  yours 
faithfully, 

"Daniel  Maclise." 

To  -which  Dickens  replied: 

"Do  not  be  offended,  I  quite  appreciate  the  feeling 
which  induced  you.  to  return  what  I  sent  you ;  notwith- 
standing, I  must  ask  you  to  take  it  back  again.  If  I 
could  have  contemplated  for  an  instant  the  selfish  en- 
grossment of  so  much  of  your  time,  and  extraordinary 
power,  I  should  have  had  no  need  (knoAving  you,  I  knew 
that  well)  to  resort  to  the  little  artifice  I  played  off. 
I  will  take  anything  else  from  3^ou  at  any  time  that  you 
will  give  me,  and  any  scrap  from  your  hand;  but  I 
entreat  3'ou  not  to  disturb  this  matter.  I  am  willing 
to  be  your  debtor  for  anything  else  in  the  whole  wide 
range  of  3'our  art,  as  you  shall  very  readily  find  when- 
ever you  put  me  to  the  proof." 

Maclise  put  his  friend  to  the  proof  five  years  later.  He 
then  painted  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  Dickens  as  a  companion  to 
the  Niclclehy  portrait  of  the  novelist,  and  this  was  accepted 
as  a  token  of  his  friendship.  The  "Nymph  of  the  Water- 
fall" was  purchased  after  Dickens's  death  by  Forster  for 
610  guineas,  and  is  now  in  the  Forster  Collection  at  South 
Kensington. 

In  addition  to  the  more  extended  trips,  and  to  the  daily 
ridings  and  trampings,  to  which  reference  has  been  made 
there  were  frequent  junketings.  Macready,  for  instance,  re- 
cords on  July  30,  1841,  "Prepared  for  our  long-promised 
expedition ;  Stanficld  came  to  accompany  us ;  we  set  out 
together,  calling  for  Mrs.  Dickens ;  went  to  Belvedere;  arrived 
there,  found  the  other  carriage  with  Dickens,  Forster, 
Maclise,  and  Cattermole.  .  .  .  Leaving  Belvedere,  we  lunched 
at  the  small  inn,  and  returned  to  Greenwich,  where  we  saw 
the  hospital,  and  meeting  Drs.  Elliotson  and  Quin,  and  Mr. 
Roberts,  we  dined  at  the  Trafalgar."  On  another  date  the 
actor  writes,  "Catherine  called  for  me,  and  we  went  to  Green- 
wich to  dine  with  Stanfield.  Our  party  consisted  of  the 
Dickenses,  Quin,  Liston,  Maclise,  E.  Landseer,  Grant,  Allan 


Z  a 


CO 


"DEAR  OLD  MAC"  71 

and  niece,  Forstor,  who  was  stentorian,  Ainsworth,  etc.; 
cheerful  day."  Again,  "Went  to  Richmond — Star  and  Gar- 
ter; met  Forster,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dickens,  Miss  Hogarth, 
Maclise,  and  Stanfield;  we  had  a  very  merry — I  suppose  I 
must  say  jollij  day — rather  more  tumultuous  than  I  like." 

And  yet  again:  "Stanfield,  Maclise,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Horace 
Twiss  arrived;  then  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dickens,  Miss  Hogarth, 
and  Catherine,  and  Troughton,  and  we  sat  down  to  one  of 
those  peculiar  English  banquets,  a  whitebait  dinner.  We 
were  all  very  cheerful — very  gay ;  all  unbent,  and  without 
ever  forgetting  the  respect  due  to  each  other;  all  was  mirth 
unrestrained  and  delighted  gaiety.  Songs  were  sung  in  rapid 
succession,  and  jests  flung  about  from  each  part  of  the  table. 
Choruses  broke  out,  and  the  reins  were  flung  over  the  necks 
of  the  merry  set.  After,  'Auld  Lang  Syne,'  sung  by  all, 
Catherine  giving  the  solos,  we  returned  home  in  our  hired 
carriage  and  an  omnibus  hired  for  the  house,  Kenyon  and  I 
on  the  box  of  the  carriage.     A  very  happy  day." 

Maclise's  pencil  was  often  at  the  service  of  his  friend. 
For  instance,  Dickens  took  with  him  to  America  a  delightful 
drawing  of  his  children;  and  in  the  following  year  the  well- 
known  sketch  of  Dickens,  his  wife,  and  his  sister-in-law  was 
executed,  of  which,  Forster  says,  "never  did  a  touch  so  light 
carry  with  it  more  truth  of  observation.  The  likenesses  of 
all  are  excellent.  .  .  .  Nothing  ever  done  of  Dickens  himself 
has  conveyed  more  vividly  his  look  and  bearing  at  this  yet 
youthful  time.  He  is  in  his  most  pleasing  aspect;  flattered, 
if  you  will ;  but  nothing  that  is  known  to  me  gives  a  general 
impression  so  life-like  and  true  of  the  then  frank,  eager, 
handsome  face."  Maclise  took  no  part  in  the  amateur  the- 
atricals, but  there  is  in  existence  a  fine  painting  by  him  of 
Forster  as  Kitcley  in  "Everyman  in  his  Humour,"  whilst 
in  the  Dyce  and  Forster  Collection  at  South  Kensington,  is 
a  playbill  of  this  play  (September  SO,  1845)  bearing  a  pencil 
sketch  by  Maclise  of  Forster  as  Kiteley  and  Dickens  as  Boba- 
dil.  He  immortalised,  too,  the  famous  reading  of  The  Chimes 
at  Forster's  house  on  December  2,  1844.  Further,  he  exe- 
cuted a  drawing  of  Dickens's  house  at  Devonshire  Terrace, 
whilst  his  "Apotheosis  of  the  Raven"  is  also  well  known. 

Last,  but  very  far  from  least,  Maclise  contributed  illus- 
trations to  three  of  the  Christmas  Books — two  each  to  The 


72  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Chimes  and  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth,  and  four  to  The 
Battle  of  Life,  and  also  one  picture,  Nell  and  the  Sexton, 
to  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop.  "It  is  a  delight,  wrote  Dickens 
to  Forster  with  reference  to  The  Battle  of  Life,  "to  look  at 
these  little  landscapes  of  the  dear  old  boy.  How  gentle  and 
elegant,  and  jet  how  manly  and  vigorous  they  arc !  I  have 
a  perfect  joy  in  them." 

Of  Maclise's  opinion  of  Dickens's  work  there  is  only  one 
piece  of  evidence.  In  a  letter  to  Forster  when  Domhey  and 
Son  was  appearing  in  numbers,  he  wrote:  "I  think  it  very 
good — the  old  nautical  instrument  seller  novel  and  most 
promising.  I'm  never  up  to  his  young  girls — he  is  so  very 
fond  of  the  age  of  'Nell,'  when  they  are  most  insipid.  I 
hope  he  is  not  going  to  make  another  'Slowboy' — but  I  am 
only  trying  to  say  something  and  to  find  fault  when  there  is 
none  to  find.    He  is  absolutely  alone." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  Dickens  had  a  very  high 
opinion  of  Maclise's  gifts,  but  that  waywardness,  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  and  which  is  remarked  on  by  several 
who  knew  him,  was  very  early  observed  by  the  novelist.  "He 
is  such  a  discoursive  fellow,"  Dickens  wrote  to  Fenton,  "and 
so  eccentric  in  his  might,  that  on  a  mental  review  of  his 
pictures  I  can  hardly  tell  you  of  them  as  leading  to  any 
one  strong  purpose.  .  .  .  He  is  a  tremendous  creature,  and 
might  be  anything.  But,  like  all  tremendous  creatures,  takes 
his  own  way,  and  flies  off  at  unexpected  breaches  in  the  con- 
ventional wall."  To  the  same  friend  he  also  wrote,  "You 
asked  me  long  ago,  about  Maclise.  .  .  .  He  is  such  a  way- 
ward fellow  in  his  subjects,  that  it  would  be  next  to  impos- 
sible to  write  such  an  article  as  you  were  thinking  about. 
.  .  .  He  is  in  great  favour  with  the  Queen,  and  paints  secret 
pictures  for  her  to  put  upon  her  husband's  table  on  the 
morning  of  his  birthday,  and  the  like.  But  if  he  has  a  care, 
he  will  leave  his  mark  on  more  enduring  things  than  palace 
walls."  ^ 

And  with  his  inherent  generosity  towards  his  friends  he 
wrote  in  "Douglas  Jerrold's  Shilling  Magazine,"  August 
1845,  a  fine  appreciation  of  Maclise's  cartoon,  "The  Spirit  of 
Chivalry,"  which  he  described  as  "a  composition  of  such  mar- 

1  It'is  curious  that  to-day  Maclise  is  known  to  most  people  only  by  his 
frescoes  on  the  walls  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament — the  Palace  of  Westminster. 


"DEAR  OLD   MAC"  73 

vellous  beauty,  of  such  infinite  variety,  of  such  masterly  de- 
sign, of  such  vigorous  and  skilful  drawing,  of  such  thought 
and  fancy,  of  such  surpassing  and  delicate  accuracy  of  detail, 
subserving  one  grand  harmony,  and  one  plain  purpose,  that 
it  may  be  questioned  whether  the  Fine  Arts  in  any  period  of 
their  history,  have  known  a  more  remarkable  performance." 
This  cartoon  was  painted  for  Westminster  Hall  to  the  order 
of  the  Commissioners.  How  meanly  and  despicably  Maclise 
was  treated  by  that  body  of  circumlocutionists  is  known, 
and  Dickens,  bursting  with  indignation  at  this  treatment  of 
his  friend,  whose  genius  he  knew  and  understood,  gave  full 
vent  to  his  indignation  in  this  article,  which  breathes  through- 
out the  spirit  of  chivalry  itself.^ 

As  already  stated,  it  was  the  bitterness  arising  from  his 
treatment  by  the  Commissioners  that  caused  Maclise  to  lose 
his  interest  in  life.  His  health  had  never  been  good,  and  it 
steadily  broke  now.  He  died  but  a  few  weeks  before  his  great 
friend — on  April  27,  1870.  "Like  you  at  Ely,  so  I  at 
Higham,  had  the  shock  of  first  reading  at  a  railway  station 
of  the  death  of  our  dear  old  friend  and  companion,"  wrote 
Dickens  to  Forster.  "What  the  shock  would  be,  you  know 
too  well.  It  has  been  only  after  great  difficulty,  and  after 
hardening  and  steeling  myself  to  the  subject,  by  at  once 
thinking  of  it  and  avoiding  it  in  a  strange  way,  that  I  have 
been  able  to  get  command  over  it  and  over  myself.  If  I  feel 
at  the  time  that  I  can  be  sure  of  the  necessary  composure, 
I  shall  make  a  reference  to  it  at  the  Academy  to-morrow." 

The  reference  was  made  at  the  Academy  banquet  on 
May  1.  Having  replied  to  the  toast  of  "Literature,"  Dickens 
said: 

"I  cannot  forbear,  before  I  resume  my  seat,  advert- 
ing to  a  sad  theme  to  which  H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales 
also  made  allusion,  and  to  which  the  President  referred 
with  the  eloquence  of  genuine  feeling.   .   .   . 

"For  many  years  I  was  one  of  the  two  most  intimate 
friends  and  most  constant  companions  of  the  late  Mr. 
Maclise.  Of  his  genius  in  his  chosen  art  I  will  venture 
to  say  nothing  here,  but  of  his  prodigious  fertility  of 

'  See  Miscellaneous  Papers. 


74  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

mind  and  wonderful  wealth  of  intellect  I  may  confi- 
dently assert  that  they  would  have  made  him,  if  he  had 
been  so  minded,  at  least  as  great  a  writer  as  he  was  a 
painter.  The  gentlest  and  most  modest  of  men,  the 
greatest  as  to  his  generous  appreciation  of  young  aspi- 
rants, and  the  greatest  and  largest  hearted  as  to  his 
peers,  incapable  of  a  sordid  or  ignoble  thought,  gal- 
lantly sustaining  the  true  dignity  of  his  vocation,  with- 
out one  grain  of  self-ambition,  wholesomely  natural  at 
the  last  as  at  the  first ;  in  wit  a  man,  simplicity  a  child ; 
no  artist,  of  whatsoever  denomination,  I  make  bold  to 
say,  ever  went  to  his  rest  leaving  a  golden  memory  more 
pure  from  dross,  or  having  devoted  himself  with  a  truer 
chivalry  to  the  art  goddess  whom  he  worshipped." 

"The  words  came  from  his  lips,  I  have  been  told,"  says 
Dickens's  daughter,  Mrs.  Perugini,  "as  though  he  were  in- 
spired, and  after  the  sound  of  his  voice  died  away,  there  was 
for  a  few  instants  a  great  silence  in  the  room,  then  all  the 
artists  and  other  guests  present  crowded  round  him,  thank- 
ing and  congratulating  him."  One  of  these  guests  has  re- 
corded that  other  toasts  and  speeches  were  to  have  followed, 
but  after  this  magnificent  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  dear 
friend,  the  company,  moved  by  a  common  instinct,  rose  and 
departed.  All  felt  that  nothing  should  follow  such  a  speech 
as  had  just  been  made.  To  quote  Forster  once  more:  "These 
were  the  last  public  words  of  Dickens,  and  he  could  not  have 
spoken  any  worthier  of  himself,  or  better  deserved  than  by 
him  of  whom  they  were  spoken." 


CHAPTER  XI 

GEORGE    CATTERMOLE 

George  Cattermole,  who  was  one  of  the  most  welcome 
visitors  to  Twickenham  in  that  summer  of  1838,  had  mar- 
ried a  distant  relative  of  Dickens's,  and  it  was  through  his 
engagement  that  the  novelist  came  to  know  him.  Dickens 
was  at  his  wedding,  and,  we  are  told,  hilariously  pelted 
the  couple  with  rice.  The  following  day  he  wrote  from 
Petersham : 

"You  know  all  I  would  say  from  my  heart  and  soul 
on  the  auspicious  event  of  yesterday ;  but  you  don't 
know  what  I  would  say  about  the  delightful  recollec- 
tions I  have  of  your  'good  lady's'  charming  looks  and 
bearing,  upon  which  I  discoursed  most  eloquently  hero 
last  evening,  and  at  considerable  length.  As  I  am  crip- 
pled in  this  respect,  however,  by  a  suspicion  that  pos- 
sibly she  ma}'  be  looking  over  your  shoulder  while  you 
read  this  note  (I  would  lay  a  moderate  wager  that  you 
have  looked  round  twice  or  thrice),  I  shall  content 
myself  with  saying  that  I  am  ever  heartily,  my  dear 
Cattermole,  Hers  and  yours." 

Writing  of  Cattermole  in  those  early  days  Forster  says 
that  he  "had  then  enough  and  to  spare  of  fun  as  well  as 
fancy  to  supply  ordinary  artists  and  humorists  by  the  dozen, 
and  wanted  only  a  little  more  ballast  and  steadiness  to 
possess  all  that  could  give  attraction  to  good-fellowship." 
This  must  not  be  taken  too  literally.  It  is  merely  a  not  very 
happy  way  of  saying  that  Cattermole  was  not  a  practical 
man.  Given  the  two  alternatives  that  the  late  Mr.  Peter 
Keary  offered  to  every  man,  Cattermole  would  have  "got 
out."  He  was  a  brilliant  artist  with  a  rare  gift  of  fancy, 
who,  if  he  had  had  anything  of  Forster's  practical  nature, 
75 


76  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

would  have  made  a  fortune,  and  left  a  bigger  name  behind 
him  than  he  did.  But  the  artistic  temperament  was  too 
strong  in  him,  self-consciousness  was  a  faihng  TNdth  him,  it 
was  not  in  him  to  "j^ush"  himself,  and  so  he  has  suffered  an 
effacement  which  ought  not  to  have  been  his.  He  lacked 
those  qualities  of  "push  and  go"  which  are  worshipped  with 
rather  an  excess  of  adoration  in  these  days.  He  lacked  any- 
thing like  worldly  ambition,  and  in  1839  refused  a  knight- 
hood. 

Dickens  liked  him  immensely,  and  was  frequently  at  his 
house,  and  the  artist's  son  recalls  the  dinners  at  Clapham 
Rise,  which,  he  says,  "had  a  charm  of  their  own."  And 
Mrs.  Cattermole  speaks  of  the  many  kind  and  successful 
excursions  that  Dickens  made  to  comfort  and  console  him 
in  the  time  of  intense  grief.  "It  was  here,"  she  says,  "that 
Charles  Dickens  was  the  friend;  he  could  'weep  with  those 
that  wept  and  rejoice  with  those  that  did  rejoice.'  He  was 
indeed  a  man  of  magnanimous  and  practical  sympathy." 

But,  of  course,  Cattermole  is  known  to  Dickensians 
chiefly  as  one  of  the  illustrators  of  Master  Humphrey's 
Clock.  It  was  in  January  13,  1840,  that  Dickens  wrote 
to  him: 

"I  am  going  to  propound  a  mightily  grave  matter  to 
you.  My  new  periodical  work  appears  ...  on  Satur- 
day the  28th  of  March.  Instead  of  being  published  in 
montlily  parts  at  a  shilling  each  only,  it  will  be  pub- 
lished in  weekly  parts  at  threepence  and  monthly  parts 
at  a  shilling;  my  object  being  to  baffle  the  imitators 
and  make  it  as  novel  as  possible.  The  plan  is  a  new 
one — I  mean  the  plan  of  the  fiction — and  it  will  com- 
prehend a  great  varict}'  of  tales.  .  .  . 

"Now,  among  other  improvements,  I  have  turned  my 
attention  to  the  illustrations,  meaning  to  have  wood- 
cuts dropped  into  the  text  and  no  separate  plates.  I 
want  to  know  whether  you  would  object  to  make  me  a 
little  sketch  for  a  woodcut — in  indian  ink  would  be 
quite  sufficient — about  the  size  of  the  enclosed  scrap; 
the  subject,  and  old  quaint  room  with  antique  Eliza- 
bethan furniture,  and  in  the  chimney-corner  an  extra- 
ordinary   old    clock — the    clock    belonging    to    Master 


GEORGE  CATTERMOLE  77 

Humphre}^,  in  fact,  and  no  figures.    This  I  should  drop 
into  the  text  at  the  head  of  my  opening  page." 

And  so  Cattermole  became  an  illustrator  of  The  Old 
Curiosity  Shop  and  Barnahy  Rudge.  He  did  39  of  the  194 
illustrations  for  the  Clock,  and  these  comprised  14  for  The 
Old  Curiosity  Shop,  15  for  Barnahy  Budge,  and  10  for  the 
Clock  chapters.  For  the  most  part  he  confined  himself  to 
the  architectural  subjects.  How  much  Dickens  appreciated 
his  work  is  shown  by  what  he  wrote  at  the  conclusion  of  The 
Old  Curiosity  Shop : 

"I  cannot  close  this  hasty  note,  my  dear  fellow,  with- 
out saying  that  I  deeply  felt  your  hearty  and  most 
invaluable  co-operation  in  the  beautiful  illustrations 
you  have  made  for  the  last  story,  that  I  look  at  them 
with  a  pleasure  I  cannot  describe  to  you  in  words,  and 
that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  say  how  sensible  I  am 
of  your  earnest  and  friendly  aid.  Believe  me  that  this 
is  the  very  first  time  any  designs  for  what  I  have 
written  have  touched  and  moved  me,  and  caused  me  to 
feel  that  they  expressed  the  idea  I  had  in  mind.  I  am 
most  sincerely  and  affectionately  grateful  to  you,  and 
am  full  of  pleasure  and  delight." 

Indeed,  he  asked  for  finished  water-colour  paintings  of 
two  of  the  illustrations,  and  here  is  his  acknowledgment  of 
their  receipt : 

"It  is  impossible  for  me  to  tell  you  how  greatly  I  am 
charmed  with  those  beautiful  pictures,  in  which  the 
whole  feeling  and  thought  and  expression  of  the  little 
story  is  rendered  to  the  gratification  of  my  inmost 
heart;  and  on  which  you  have  lavished  those  amazing 
resources  of  yours  with  a  power  at  which  I  fairly  won- 
dered when  I  sat  down  yesterday  before  them. 

"I  took  them  to  Mac,^  straightway,  in  a  cab,  and 
it  would  have  done  you  good  if  you  could  have  seen  and 
heard  him.    You  can't  think  how  moved  he  was  by  the 

» Macliae. 


78  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

old  man  in  the  church,  or  how  pleased  I  was  to  have 
chosen  it  before  he  saw  the  drawings. 

"You  are  such  a  queer  fellow  and  hold  j'ourself  so 
much  aloof,  that  I  am  afraid  to  say  half  I  would  say 
touching  my  grateful  admiration;  so  you  shall  imagine 
the  rest." 

Reference  was  made  to  those  paintings  and  to  Catter- 
mole's  aloofness  in  a  letter  written  many  years  later  (in 
1868)  to  the  artist's  wife  when  he  was  sick  unto  death.  The 
old  intimacy  had  passed  away — owing  to  Cattermole's  aloof- 
ness— but  the  old  friendship  remained: 

"My  old  affection  for  him  has  never  cooled.  The  last 
time  he  dined  with  me,  I  asked  him  to  come  again  that 
day  ten  years,  for  I  was  perfectly  certain  (this  was  my 
sm.all  joke)  that  I  should  not  set  eyes  upon  him  sooner 
The  time  being  fully  up,  I  hope  you  will  remind  him, 
with  m}'  love,  that  he  is  due.  His  hand  is  upon  these 
walls  here,  as  I  should  like  him  to  see  for  himself,  and 
you  to  see  for  yourself,  and  in  this  hope  I  shall  pursue 
his  complete  recovery." 

But  it  was  not  to  be.  The  old  friend  had  entered  the 
Spirit  World  ere  the  year  was  out. 

Why  Cattermole  was  never  invited  to  illustrate  any  n^orc 
of  Dickens's  books  is  a  mystery  that  I  cannot  pretend  to 
solve.  But  if  the  friends  were  never  again  to  be  thus  asso- 
ciated, they  were  associated  in  another  sphere  of  art,  for 
Cattermole  took  part  in  some  of  the  amateur  theatricals. 

Ho  played  Wellbred  in  "Every  Man  in  liis  Humour"  at 
Miss  Kelly's  theatre  in  1845,  and  retained  the  part  in  tlie 
subsequent  performance  at  the  St.  James's  Theatre  in  No- 
vember, and  again  in  the  London  and  provincial  perform- 
ances in  1847  on  behalf  of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole.  It 
is  curious  that  Forster  does  not  record  the  participation  in 
these  performances  of  so  old  and  so  close  a  friend. 

After  this  there  is  practically  no  record  of  the  friendship. 
Cattermole's  appearances  in  the  social  circle  became  very 
rare.  But  the  friendship,  as  we  have  seen,  remained  un- 
affected, and  in  1852  we  find  Dickens  writing  this  deliglitful 
letter: 


GEORGE   CATTERMOLE  79 

"I  was  going  to  let  off  a  tremendous  joke  about  the 
new  number  coming  out  by  and  bye  resplendently  'in 
parts'  (you  perceive  the  subtle  point?)  when  my  spirits 
were  dashed  and  my  intention  balked  by  your  not  hav- 
ing told  me  the  sex — which  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  elaboration  of  the  idea.  But  for  this  notification  I 
should  have  had  nothing  but  pleasure  in  the  receipt  of 
your  note,  on  account  of  the  baby,  on  account  of  the 
mother,  on  account  of  the  father,  on  account  of  the  wel- 
come I  give  your  handwriting  and  any  sort  of  communi- 
cation with  you,  however  shadowy — on  all  accounts  and 
for  all  sorts  of  loving  reasons.  .  .  .  Now,  donH  you 
think  .  .  .  don't  you  think  you  could  manage  to  dine 
here  at  the  family  board  either  next  Sunday  or  next 
Sunday  after  that  at  five  exactly?  ...  If  you  come 
I'll  ask  Sloppy  to  meet  you,  and  we'll  have  a  leg  of 
mutton  from  Tuckersesesesesesesesesesesesesis  in  the 
Strand,  where  I  understand  they  are  perpetually  a 
hulloxinin  of  Devonshire  sassageses  round  the  corner.'* 

Forster  does  not  quote  this  letter,  but  he  explains  the 
joke.  "Sloppy"  was  a  character — a  "waterman"  at  the 
Charing  Cross  cabstand,  first  discovered  by  Cattermole, 
"whose  imitations  of  him  were  a  delight  to  Dickens,  and 
adapted  themselves  in  the  exuberance  of  his  admiration  to 
every  conceivable  variety  of  subject."  Forster  adds: 
"  'Sloppy'  had  a  friend  'Jack'  in  whom  he  was  supposed  to 
typify  his  own  early  and  hard  experiences  before  he  became 
a  convert  to  temperance;  and  Dickens  used  to  point  to 
'Jack'  as  the  justification  for  himself  and  Mrs.  Gamp  for 
their  portentous  invention  of  Mrs.  Harris.  It  is  amazing 
nonsense  to  repeat,  but  to  hear  Cattermole,  in  the  gruff 
hoarse  accents  of  what  seemed  to  be  the  remains  of  a  deep 
bass  voice  enveloped  in  wet  straw,  repeat  the  wUd  proceed- 
ings of  'Jack,'  was  not  to  be  forgotten." 


CHAPTER  XII 

WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY 

It  is  not  at  all  easy  to  arrive  at  any  positive  impression 
as  to  what  were  Dickens's  relations  with  Thackeray,  with 
whom  he  was  already  well  acquainted  at  this  time,  but  it 
seems  clear  that  there  was  never  an  intimate  friendship. 
For  years  they  were  on  terms  of  cordiality ;  Thackeray  was 
certainly  a  frequent  visitor  at  Dickens's  house  from  very 
early  days,  and  they  got  along  together  very  well  until 
Edmund  Yates  brought  about  an  estrangement;  but  they 
were  men  of  totally  dissimilar  temperaments  and  upbringing, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  real  intimacy  ever  haA'ing 
existed.  Thackeray  had  been  well  educated  and  moved  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  drawing-room  and  the  club.  Dickens 
"may  be  said  to  have  educated  himself" ;  he  belonged  to  a 
totally  different  strata  of  Society,  and  could  have  had  but 
little  in  common  vnth  his  great  contemporary.  The  one 
viewed  life,  so  to  speak,  from  the  stalls,  the  other  from  the 
gallery.  Thackeray's  (superficially)  cjmical  outlook  on 
life  must  have  irritated  Dickens,  whose  boisterous,  un- 
ashamed enjoyment  of  all  good  things  could  never  have 
been  understandable  to  the  other. 

One  writer  has  said :  "Dickens  was  a  man  of  great  vanity, 
wholly,  or  almost  wholly  free  from  pride.  Thackeray  was  a 
man  of  great  pride,  wholly,  or  almost  wholly  without  vanity. 
Dickens  was  vain  of  his  literary  distinction ;  Thackeray  was 
too  proud  to  be  vain  of  his  rank  as  an  author.  Indeed  .  .  . 
he  seems  to  be  always  more  than  half  ashamed  of  his  calling. 
Thackeray  was  without  literary  envy;  Dickens  had  more 
than  a  little  of  that  great  defect  of  the  literary  character. 
Dickens  was  vain  of  his  friendship  with  great  folks ;  Thack- 
eray was  too  proud  of  his  natural  title  to  be  one  of  them- 
selves to  be  vain  of  associating  with  the  aristocracy."  There 
is  probably  much  truth  in  this.     Thackeray's  lack  of  pride 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  81 

in  his  art  was  the  most  serious  defect  Dickens  saw  in  him. 
In  the  "In  Memoriam"  article  in  the  "Cornhill  Magazine" 
Dickens  wrote : 


"We  had  our  differences  of  opinion.  I  thought  that 
he  too  much  feigned  a  want  of  earnestness,  and  that  he 
made  a  pretence  of  undervaluing  his  art,  which  was  not 
good  for  the  art  that  he  held  in  trust.  But  when  we 
fell  upon  these  topics  it  was  never  very  gravely,  and 
I  have  a  lively  image  of  him  in  my  mind,  twisting  both 
his  hands  in  his  hair,  and  stamping  about  laughing,  to 
make  an  end  of  the  discussion." 


A  lack  of  earnestness,  real  or  feigned,  was  something  with 
which  Dickens  had  no  patience  at  all,  and  whether  we  call 
it  vanity  or  pride,  he  certainly  held  his  art  in  the  highest 
esteem,  and  was  very  jealous  of  it. 

Much  has  been  made  by  many  writers  of  a  jealousy  which 
they  allege  Thackeray  entertained  of  Dickens,  but  I  believe 
that  no  such  feeling  existed,  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  tells  us 
that  in  the  'fifties  there  were  two  "parties"  in  the  literary 
world — a  Thackeray  party  and  a  Dickens  party;  and  that 
feeling  ran  high  between  them.  That  is  true,  but,  we  may  be 
certain  that  the  feeling  did  not  extend  to  the  men  themselves. 
We  have  on  record  one  or  two  outbursts  of  Thackeray's 
that  most  assuredly  do  not  reflect  the  real  spirit  of  the  man. 
They  are  cherished  by  people  who  cannot  re-create  for  us 
the  circumstances  or  the  tone  of  voice  in  which  they  were 
uttered,  and  if  we  were  to  judge  Thackeray  by  them  we 
should  be  doing  him  an  injustice.  James  Cordy  Jeaff re- 
son  says: 

**It  is  certain  that  Thackeray,  from  the  dawn  of  his 
celebrity  to  the  last  year  of  his  life,  was  greatly  desir- 
ous of  surpassing  Dickens  in  the  world's  favour,  and 
at  times  was  keenly  annoyed  by  his  inability  to  do  so. 
I  question  whether  Thackeray  liad  a  familiar  friend 
who  did  not  at  some  time  or  other  hear  tlie  author  of 
*Vanity  Fair'  speak  of  himself  as  Dickens's  rival,  and 
declare  his  chagrin  at  failing  to  out-rival  him." 


82  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Lord  William  Lennox  relates  that  one  night  he  dined  at  a 
house  where  both  Thackeray  and  Dickens  were  among  the 
guests.  After  dinner,  a  young  man,  who  sat  next  to  Dickens 
and  immediately  opposite  Thackeray,  began  to  praise 
Dickens  to  his  face  in  a  fulsome  manner.  "All  of  a  sudden," 
says  the  narrator  of  the  incident,  "Thackeray  stojoped  in 
the  midst  of  a  sentence,  turned  his  chair  round  as  if  to 
escape  from  the  sound  of  the  flatterer's  tongue,  and 
whispered,  'Do  you  hear  that?  I  go  nowhere  but  I  am  sub- 
ject to  it.     I  should  not  mind  Bulwer-Lytton  praised  to  the 

skies,  for  I  own  my  inferiority,  but !'  "     Frankly,  if  I 

swallow  this  story  at  all,  I  do  so  with  a  spoonful  of  salt. 
Thackeray  acknowledging  Inferiority  to  Lytton  is  beyond 
belief. 

We  are  told — and  it  Is  a  much  more  credible  story — that 
on  one  occasion  Thackeray  exclaimed:  "Dickens  is  mak- 
ing ten  thousand  a  year.  He  is  very  angry  with  me  for 
saying  so;  but  I  will  say  it,  for  it  is  true.  He  doesn't  like 
me.  He  knows  that  my  books  are  a  protest  against  his — ■ 
that  if  the  one  set  are  true,  the  other  must  be  false."  But 
of  this  I  am  very  sure ;  there  was  nothing  at  all  petty  In  his 
envy  of  Dickens.  He  was  conscious  of  his  greatness  in  his 
art,  conscious,  no  doubt,  of  his  superiority  to  Dickens  in 
some  respects,  but  no  man  more  readily  or  more  generously 
recognised  and  paid  tribute  to  his  great  contemporary's 
genius.  If  there  are  on  record  many  expressions  of  his  envy, 
there  are  also  on  record  many  more  expressions  of  his  appre- 
ciation of  Dickens's  genius.  Jcaffreson  says  that  this  envy 
was  not  a  passion  mean  in  itself:  "An  essentially  and  uni- 
formly generous  passion,  it  was  attended  with  a  cordial 
recognition  of  the  genius  of  Charles  Dickens,  and  with 
enthusiastic  admiration  of  his  finer  artistic  achievements. 
Though  he  often  spoke  to  me  of  Dickens  and  his  literary 
doings,  I  never  heard  him  utter  a  word  of  disparagement  of 
the  writer  whom  he  laboured  to  outshine."  He  further 
records  that  Thackeray  once  said  to  him :  "Wliat  is  the  use 
of  my  trying  to  run  before  that  man?  I  cannot  touch  him — 
I  can't  get  near  him."  Whilst  on  another  occasion  he  said: 
"I  am  played  out.  All  I  can  do  now  is  to  bring  out  my  old 
puppets  and  put  new  bits  of  ribband  on  them.     But  if  he 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  83 

lives  to  be  ninety,  Dickens  will  still  be  creating  new  char- 
acters.    In  his  art  that  man  is  marvellous." 

James  Payn  tells  us  that  "what  Thackeray  .  .  .  wrote  of 
Dickens  he  also  certainly  felt.  I  had  once  a  long  conversa- 
tion with  him  upon  the  subject;  it  was  before  the  shadow 
(caused  by  a  trivial  matter,  after  all)  had  come  between 
them,  but  I  am  sure  that  would  not  have  altered  his  opinion. 
Of  course,  there  were  some  points  on  which  he  was  less  en- 
thusiastic than  on  others ;  the  height  of  the  literary  pedestal 
on  which  Dickens  sat  was,  he  thought,  for  some  reasons,  to 
be  deplored  for  his  own  sake.  *There  is  nobody  to  tell  him 
when  anything  goes  wrong,'  he  said ;  'Dickens  is  the  Sultan, 
and  Wills  is  his  Grand  Vizier';  but  on  the  whole  his  praise 
was  as  great  as  it  was  generous." 

And  read  this  from  Thackeray's  own  pen : 

"As  for  the  charities  of  Mr.  Dickens,  the  multiplied 
kindnesses  which  he  has  conferred  upon  us  all,  upon 
our  children,  upon  people  educated  and  uneducated, 
upon  the  myriads  who  speak  our  common  tongue,  have 
not  you,  haA'^e  not  I,  all  of  us,  reason  to  be  thankful  to 
this  kind  friend  who  so  often  cheered  so  many  hours, 
brought  pleasure  and  sweet  laughter  to  so  many  homes, 
made  such  multitudes  of  children  happy,  endowed  us 
with  such  a  sweet  store  of  gracious  thoughts,  fair 
fancies,  soft  sympathies,  hearty  enjoyment?  I  may 
quarrel  with  Mr.  Dickens's  art  a  thousand  and  a 
thousand  times ;  I  delight  and  wonder  at  his  genius.  I 
recognise  it — I  speak  with  awe  and  reverence — a  com- 
mission from  that  divine  Beneficence  Whose  blessed  task 
we  know  it  will  one  day  be  to  wipe  every  tear  from 
every  eye.  Thankfully,  I  take  my  share  of  the  feast  of 
love  and  kindness  which  this  noble  and  generous  and 
charitable  soul  has  contributed  to  the  happiness  of  the 
world.  I  take  and  enjoy  my  share,  and  say  a  benedic- 
tion for  the  meal." 

Verily,  here  is  no  evidence  of  a  petty  or  ignoble  envy.  In 
his  lecture  on  Sterne  he  said:  "The  foul  satyr's  eyes  leer 
out  of  the  leaves  constantly,  ...  I  think  of  these  past 
writers,  and  of  one  who  lives  amongst  us  now,  and  am  grate- 


84  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

ful  for  the  innocent  laughter  and  the  sweet  unsullied  pages 
which  the  author  of  David  Coppcrfield  gives  to  my  children." 
Then  there  is  the  famous  eulogy  of  the  Carol: 

"And  now  there  is  but  one  book  left  in  the  box,  the 
smallest  one;  but,  oh!  how  much  the  best  of  all.  It  is 
the  work  of  the  master  of  all  the  English  humorists  now 
alive;  the  young  man  who  came  and  took  his  place 
calmly  at  the  head  of  the  whole  tribe,  and  who  has 
kept  it.  Think  of  all  we  owe  Mr.  Dickens  since  those 
half-dozen  years,  the  store  of  happy  hours  that  he  has 
made  us  pass,  the  kindly  and  pleasant  companions 
whom  he  has  introduced  to  us ;  the  harmless  laughter, 
the  generous  wit,  the  frank,  manly,  human  love  which 
he  has  taught  us  to  feel !  Every  month  of  those  years 
has  brought  us  some  kind  token  from  this  delightful 
genius.  His  books  may  have  lost  in  art,  but  could  we 
afford  to  wait?  .  .  .  Who  can  listen  to  objections  re- 
garding such  a  book  as  this  ?  It  seems  to  me  a  national 
benefit,  and  to  every  man  or  woman  who  reads  it  a  per- 
sonal kindness.  The  last  two  people  I  heard  speak  of  it 
were  women;  neither  knew  the  other  or  the  author,  and 
both  said,  by  way  of  criticism  ('God  bless  him!'  ...  As 
for  Tiny  Tim,  .  .  .  there  is  not  a  reader  in  England  but 
that  little  fellow  will  be  a  bond  of  union  between  the 
author  and  him;  and  he  will  say  of  Charles  Dickens, 
as  the  women  just  now,  'God  bless  him!'  What  a  feel- 
ing is  this  for  a  writer  to  be  able  to  inspire,  and  what  a 
reward  to  reap !" 

Of  David  Copperfield  he  wrote  in  "Punch" :  "How  beauti- 
ful it  is,  how  charmingly  fresh  and  simple!  In  those  ad- 
mirable touches  of  tender  humour — and  I  shall  call  humour. 
Bob,  a  mixture  of  love  and  wit — who  can  equal  this  great 
writer?"  There  is,  too,  the  well-known  story  of  how,  going 
into  the  "Punch"  office,  he  threw  a  copy  of  the  fifth  number 
of  Domhey  and  Son  on  to  the  table  before  INIark  Lemon,  and 
exclaimed :  "There's  no  writing  against  such  power  as  this — 
one  has  no  chance!  Read  the  chapter  describing  young 
Paul's  death:  it  is  unsurpassed — it  is  stupendous." 


I 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  85 

And  finally,  we  have  the  story  that  he  told  in  the  course 
of  one  of  his  lectures  in  1855.    He  was  speaking  of  Dickens: 

"All  children  love  him.  I  know  two  that  do,  and 
read  his  books  ten  times  for  once  they  peruse  the  dis- 
mal preachments  of  their  father,  I  know  one  who, 
when  she  is  happy,  reads  NicJiolas  Nichlehy;  when  she  is 
unhappy,  reads  Nicholas  Nicklehy;  when  she  is  tired, 
reads  Nicholas  Nicklehy;  when  she  is  in  bed,  reads 
Nicholas  Nicklehy;  when  she  has  nothing  to  do,  reads 
Nicholas  Nichlehy;  and  when  she  has  finished  the  book, 
reads  Nicholas  Nichlehy  again.  This  critic,  at  ten 
years  of  age,  said:  'I  like  Mr.  Dickens's  books  better 
than  yours,  papa,'  and  frequently  expressed  her  de- 
sire that  the  latter  author  should  write  a  book  like  one 
of  Mr.  Dickens's  books.     Who  can.?" 

Has  ever  more  charming  tribute  been  paid  by  one 
author  to  another.?  It  drew  from  Dickens  the  following 
acknowledgment : 

"I  have  read  in  'The  Times'  to-day  an  account  of 
your  last  night's  lecture,  and  cannot  refrain  from  as- 
suring you  in  all  truth  and  earnestness  that  I  am  pro- 
foundly touched  by  your  generous  reference  to  me.  I 
do  not  know  how  to  tell  you  what  a  glow  it  spread 
over  my  heart.  Out  of  its  fulness  I  do  entreat  you  to 
believe  that  I  shall  never  forget  your  words  of  com- 
mendation. If  you  could  wholly  know  at  once  how  you 
have  moved  me,  and  how  you  have  animated  me,  you 
would  be  the  happier,  I  am  sure." 

No ;  it  may  be — probably  is — true  that  Thackeray  felt 
annoyance  at  the  fact  that  such  popularity  as  Dickens  had 
won  was  not  his,  but  he  was  too  great  a  man,  he  possessed 
too  big  a  heart,  to  be  capable  of  such  petty  jealousy  as  some 
writers  suggest.  Was  there  any  such  feeling  on  Dickens's 
side?  How  could  there  be?  From  the  day  that  Sam  Weller 
saw  the  light,  Dickens,  until  the  day  of  his  death,  was  the 
idol  of  his  countrymen,  and  his  books  sold  better  than  the 
books  of  any  other  author  in  the  world.     Jeaffreson  never 


86  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

met  Dickens,  and  he  was  a  friend  of  Thackeray's,  so  that 
on  this  point  we  may  listen  to  him  with  confidence.  He 
says  that  Dickens  never  regarded  himself  as  a  competitor 
with  Thackeray,  and  that  "from  the  dawn  of  Thackeray's 
success  to  the  hour  of  his  death,  the  rivalry  of  the  two 
novelists  was  a  one-sided  rivalry."  He  adds:  "Jealousy 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  one  of  Dickens's  f aihngs.  He 
had  quite  as  much  reason  to  be  jealous  of  Sir  Edward 
Bulwer-Lytton  and  of  Wilkie  Collins,  when  they  were  in 
the  fulness  of  their  powers  and  pojDularity,  as  he  had  to  be 
jealous  of  Thackeray' ;  but  he  lived  in  friendliness  with  them, 
and  invited  them  to  write  for  him." 

Thackeray  seems  to  have  felt  that  Dickens  did  not  like 
him  personally.  What  reason  he  may  have  had  I  do  not 
know,  but  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  if  it  were  true  he 
would  have  been  a  welcome  guest  at  Dickens's  home  for 
twenty  years.  At  any  rate,  we  do  know  that  when  Thack- 
eray was  going  to  America  Dickens  came  to  London  from 
Folkstone  especially  to  preside  at  the  farewell  dinner. 
Forster  tells  us  that  there  was  a  muster  of  more  than  sixty 
admiring  entertainers,  and  that  "Dickens's  speech  gave 
happy  exj)ression  to  the  spirit  that  animated  all,  telling 
Thackeray  not  alone  how  much  his  friendship  was  prized 
by  those  present,  and  how  proud  they  were  of  his  genius,  but 
offering  him  in  the  name  of  tens  of  thousands  absent  who 
had  never  touched  his  hand  or  seen  his  face,  lifelong  thanks 
for  the  treasures  of  mirth,  wit,  and  wisdom  within  the 
yellow-covered  numbers  of  'Pendennis'  and  'Vanity  Fair.'  " 
And  in  1858,  when  Thackeray  presided  at  the  annual  dinner 
of  the  General  Theatrical  Fund,  Dickens,  in  proposing  his 
health,  said: 

"From  the  earliest  days  of  this  Institution  I  have 
ventured  to  impress  on  its  managers,  that  they  would 
consult  its  credit  and  success  by  choosing  its  chairmen 
as  often  as  possible  within  the  circle  of  literature  and 
the  arts ;  and  I  will  venture  to  say  that  no  similar 
institution  has  been  so  presided  over  by  so  many  re- 
markable and  distinguished  men,  I  am  sure,  however, 
that  it  never  has  had,  and  that  it  never  will  have, 
simply  because  it  cannot  have,  a  greater  lustre  cast 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  87 

upon  it  than  by  the  presence  of  the  noble  English 
writer  who  fills  the  chair  to-night.  It  is  not  for  me 
at  this  time,  and  in  this  place,  to  take  on  myself  to 
flutter  before  you  the  well-thumbed  pages  of  Mr. 
Thackeray's  books,  and  to  tell  you  to  observe  how 
full  they  are  of  wit  and  wisdom,  how  out-speaking,  and 
how  devoid  of  fear  or  favour;  but  I  will  take  leave  to 
remark,  in  paying  my  due  homage  and  respect  to  them, 
that  it  is  fitting  that  such  a  writer  and  such  an  institu- 
tion should  be  brought  together.  Every  writer  of  fic- 
tion, although  he  may  not  adopt  the  dramatic  form, 
writes,  in  effect,  for  the  stage.  He  may  never  write 
plays ;  but  the  truth  and  passion  which  are  in  him  must 
be  more  or  less  reflected  in  the  great  mirror  which  he 
holds  up  to  nature.  Actors,  managers,  and  authors 
are  all  represented  in  this  company,  and  it  may  be  sup- 
posed that  they  have  all  studied  the  deep  wants  of  the 
human  heart  in  many  theatres ;  but  none  of  them  could 
have  studied  its  mysterious  workings  in  any  theatre  to 
greater  advantage  than  in  the  bright  and  airy  pages  of 
'Vanity  Fair.'  To  this  skilful  showman  who  has  so 
often  delighted  us,  and  who  has  charmed  us  again  to- 
night, we  have  now  to  wish  God-speed,  and  that  he  may 
continue  for  many  years  to  exercise  his  potent  art.  To 
him  fill  a  bumper  toast,  and  fervently  utter,  God  bless 
him !" 

Temperamentally,  I  suppose,  no  two  men  could  be  more 
unlike  than  Dickens  and  Thackeray,  but  we  may  be  sure 
of  this — that  Dickens  never  subscribed  to  the  very  common 
but  very  superficial  judgment  of  Thackeray  as  a  cynic. 
Ruskin  says:  "Those  who  are  naturally  proud  and  envious 
will  learn  from  Thackeray  to  despise  humanity;  those  who 
are  naturally  gentle  to  pity  it ;  those  who  are  naturally 
shallow  to  laugh  at  it."  This  is  truer  than  many  of  Ruskin's 
literary  judgments,  but  there  is  no  profundity  in  it.  If  it 
is  true  that  all  great  works  of  art  reveal  the  personalities  of 
their  authors,  then  "The  Newcomes,"  and  "Pendennis,"  and 
"Vanity  Fair"  tell  us  that  Thackeray  was  a  man  of  won- 
derful tenderness,  with  a  genuine  love  for  humanity.  His 
early  sorrow  had  not  embittered  him,  and  if  he  laughed  at 


88  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

humanit}',  it  was  alwaj^s  a  sweet  and  tender  laugh  of  tolera- 
tion. He  did  not  wear  his  heart  on  his  sleeve,  as  Dickens, 
perhaps,  was  apt  to  do,  but  beneath  the  apparently  cynical 
smile  there  was  an  almost  womanly  sensitiveness.  As 
"Punch"  said,  when  he  died: 

".  .  .  if  he  smiled 
Hia  smile  had  more  of  sadness  than  of  mirth — 
But  more  ©f  love  than  either." 

Trollope  was  a  very  enthusiastic  Thackeray  worshipper, 
but  there  is  no  exaggeration  in  the  following: 

"He  who  knew  Thackeray  will  have  a  vacancy  in 
his  heart's  innermost  casket  which  must  remam  vacant 
till  he  dies.  One  loved  him  almost  as  one  loves  a  woman, 
tenderly,  and  with  thoughtfulness — thinking  of  him 
when  away  from  him  as  a  source  of  joy  that  cannot  be 
analysed,  but  is  full  of  comfort." 

We  may  be  sure  that  Dickens  never  entertained  any  feel- 
ing of  dislike  for  such  a  man.  The  truth  is  much  more 
likely  to  be  that  Thackeray  never  really  understood  the 
author  of  Pickwick. 

The  first  meeting  of  these  two  novelists  is  historic. 
Thackeray  himself  told  the  story  at  a  Royal  Academy 
banquet  at  which  Dickens  was  present.  Responding  to  the 
toast  of  "Literature,"  he  said: 

"Had  it  not  been  for  the  direct  action  of  my  friend 
who  has  just  sat  down,  I  should  most  likely  never  have 
been  included  in  the  toast  which  you  have  been  pleased 
to  drink,  and  I  should  have  tried  to  be  not  a  writer, 
but  a  painter  or  designer  of  pictures.  That  was  the 
object  of  my  early  ambition.  I  can  remember  when  Mr. 
Dickens  was  a  very  young  man,  and  had  commenced 
delighting  the  world  with  some  charming  humorous 
works  .  .  .  that  this  young  man  wanted  an  artist  to 
illustrate  his  writings ;  and  I  recollect  walking  up  to  his 
chambers  in  Furnival's  Inn,  with  two  or  three  drawings 
in  my  hand,  which,  strange  to  say,  he  did  not  find  suit- 
able. But  for  the  unfortunate  blight  which  came  over 
my  artistical  existence,  it  would  have  been  my  pride 


W.  M.  Thackeray 


Dickens  and  His  Friends  in  Cornwall 

The  Carriage  Contains  Daniel  Maclise,  Clarkson  Stanfield,  Charles  Dickens  and  John  Forster 

From  a  Sketch  by  W.  M.  Thackeray 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  89 

and  my  pleasure  one  day  to  find  a  place  on  these  wails 
for  one  of  my  performances." 

One  hesitates  to  hazard  a  guess  at  how  much  those  draw- 
ings would  fetch  if  they  could  be  put  on  the  market  to-day. 
It  is  not  the  least  of  the  debts  that  the  world  owes  to 
Dickens  that  it  was  he  who  drove  Thackeray  to  write,  and 
thus  to  enrich  our  literature  and  to  give  us  such  friends 
as  Col.  Newcombe  and  Major  Dobbin.  It  is  said,  indeed, 
that  at  the  time  Thackeray  remarked,  "Well,  if  you  won't 
let  me  draw,  I  will  write." 

The  next  time  they  met  was  at  Harrison  Ainsworth's 
house,  and  then  we  read  of  Thackeray  as  one  of  the  welcome 
visitors  at  Twickenham  in  1838.  Thackeray  endeared  him- 
self to  Dickens's  children:  for  this  "cynic"  was  ever  in  his 
element  when  in  the  company  of  the  little  ones,  and  we  have 
Mrs.  Perugini's  word  for  it  that  he  was  loved  by  her  and 
by  her  brothers  and  sisters.  He  was  a  guest  at  the  Chil- 
dren's Theatricals  at  Tavistock  House,  and  Forster  records 
how,  on  hearing  one  of  the  youngsters  sing  the  ballad  of 
Miss  Villikins,  the  author  of  "Vanity  Fair"  rolled  off  his 
chair  "in  a  burst  of  laughter  that  became  absurdly  con- 
tagious." 

In  1849  Thackeray  was  present  at  the  dinner  to  celebrate 
the  publication  of  the  first  number  of  David  Copperfield. 
We  read,  too,  of  pleasant  meetings  in  France.  And  here 
it  should  just  be  recalled  that  although  Thackeray  was  not 
one  of  the  party  that  made  the  Cornish  trip  in  1842,  he  pro- 
duced a  souvenir  of  that  memorable  jaunt  in  the  shape  of  a 
rough  drawing  depicting  Dickens,  Forster,  Stanfield  and 
Maclise  in  the  carriage  in  which  they  did  their  travelling. 
That  they  were  certainly  very  good  friends  at  this  time  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1843  Dickens  presented  Thackeray 
with  a  copy  of  the  Carol  with  the  following  autograph  in- 
scription :  "W.  M.  Thackeray,  from  Charles  Dickens 
(whom  he  made  very  happy  once  a  long  way  from  home)." 
I  have  been  unable  to  trace  the  allusion  here.  That  copy  of 
the  Carol  has  an  interesting  history,  for,  when,  after 
Thackeray's  death,  his  belongings  were  sold  by  auction, 
Queen  Victoria  sent  an  unlimited  commission  to  buy  it,  be- 
coming its  possessor  for  £25  10s. 


90  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

It  is  an  Gver-to-be-regretted  fact  that  the  friendship  be- 
tween these  two  great  men  should  have  been  severed  through 
the  unmannerly  conduct  of  a  3'oung  journalist  who,  at  the 
time,  at  any  rate,  was  of  no  importance.  Yates  had  started 
a  paper  called  "Town  Talk,"  and  to  this,  in  the  autumn  of 
1858,  he  contributed  an  article  on  Thackeray.  That  arti- 
cle contained  the  following: 

"No  one  meeting  him  can  fail  to  recognise  in  him  a 
gentleman;  his  bearing  is  cold  and  uninviting,  his  style 
of  conversation  either  openly  cynical  or  affectedly 
good-natured  and  benevolent;  his  bonJiommie  is  forced, 
his  wit  biting,  his  pride  easily  touched ;  but  his  appear- 
ance is  invariably  that  of  the  cool,  suaz*e,  well-bred 
gentleman,  who,  whatever  may  be  rankling  within, 
suffers  no  surface  display  of  his  emotions.  .  .  .  His 
success  with  'Vanity  Fair'  culminated  with  his  'Lec- 
tures on  the  English  Humorists  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury,' which  were  attended  by  all  the  court  and  fashion 
of  London.  The  prices  were  extravagant,  the  lecturer's 
adulation  of  birth  and  position  was  extravagant,  the 
success  was  extravagant.  No  one  succeeds  better  than 
Mr.  Thackeray  in  cutting  his  coat  according  to  his 
cloth.  Here  he  flattered  the  aristocracy;  but  when  he 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  George  Washington  became  the 
idol  of  his  worship,  the  'Four  Georges'  the  objects  of 
his  bitterest  attacks.  .  .  .  Our  own  opinion  Is,  that  his 
success  Is  on  the  wane.  .  .  .  There  is  a  want  of  heart  in 
all  he  writes,  which  is  not  to  be  balanced  by  the  most 
brilliant  sarcasm  and  the  most  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  workings  of  the  human  heart." 

There  can  be  no  two  opinions:  this  article  was  grossly 
offensive.  It  may  be  said  that  Thackeray  might  have 
ignored  the  rudeness  of  an  unimportant  young  journalist, 
but  Yates  and  he  were  members  of  the  same  club,  and  I  can- 
not but  think  that  he  acted  in  the  only  possible  way.  He 
wrote  to  Yates: 

"As  I  understand  your  phrases,  you  Impute  Insin- 
cerity to  me  when  I  speak  good-naturedly  in  private, 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  91 

assign  dishonourable  motives  to  me  for  sentiments  which 
I  have  delivered  in  public,  and  charge  me  with  advan- 
cing statements  which  I  have  never  delivered  at  all.  Had 
your  remarks  been  written  by  a  person  unknown  to  me, 
I  should  have  noticed  them  no  more  than  other 
calumnies ;  but  as  we  have  shaken  hands  more  than  once 
and  met  hitherto  on  friendly  terms  (you  may  ask  one 

of  your  employers,  Mr.  ,  whether  I  did  not  speak 

of  you  very  lately  in  the  most  friendly  manner),  I  am 
obliged  to  take  notice  of  articles  which  I  consider  to  be 
not  offensive  and  unfriendly  merelj^,  but  slanderous  and 
untrue.  We  meet  at  a  club  where,  before  you  were 
born,  I  believe,  I  and  other  gentlemen  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  talking  without  any  idea  that  our  conversa- 
tion would  supply  paragraphs  for  professional  vendors 
of  'Literary  Talk';  and  I  don't  remember  that  out  of 
that  club  I  have  ever  exchanged  six  words  with  you. 
Allow  me  to  inform  you  that  the  talk  which  you  have 
heard  there  is  not  intended  for  newspaper  remark,  and 
to  beg — as  I  have  a  right  to  do — that  you  will  refrain 
from  printing  comments  upon  my  private  conversa- 
tions ;  that  you  will  forego  discussions,  however 
blundering,  upon  my  private  affairs ;  and  that  you  will 
henceforth  please  to  consider  any  question  of  my  per- 
sonal truth  and  sincerity  as  quite  out  of  the  province 
of  your  criticism." 

Yates,  writing  long  afterwards,  says:  "I  think  it  must  be 
admitted  by  the  most  impartial  reader  that  this  letter  is 
severe  to  the  point  of  cruelty;  that  whatever  the  silliness  and 
impertinence  of  the  article,  it  was  scarcely  calculated  to  have 
provoked  so  curiously  bitter  an  outburst  of  personal  feeling 
against  its  writer ;  that  in  comparison  with  the  offence  com- 
mitted by  me  the  censure  administered  by  Mr.  Thackeray 
is  almost  ludicrously  exaggerated."  I  cannot  follow  the 
argument.  Yates's  article  had  been  not  merely  silly  and 
impertinent ;  it  had  been  libellous ;  it  had  impugned  the  per- 
sonal honour  of  one  of  the  best-known  men  of  the  time.  If 
Yates  had  promptly  apvologised  the  matter  would  have  gone 
no  further.  But,  with  all  the  "cleverness"  and  "smartness" 
of  youth,  he  "put  himself  on  his  dignity"  and  adopted  an 


92  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

utterly  impossible  attitude.  He  drafted  a  reply  to  Thack- 
eray's letter,  reminding  that  writer  how  he  himself  had 
lampooned  many  of  his  fellow-authors.  The  letter  was  never 
sent — unhappily,  as  Yates  says.  He  submitted  it  to 
Dickens,  and  Dickens  was  of  opinion  that  it  was  "too  flip- 
pant and  too  violent."  Together  they  compiled  the  follow- 
ing letter,  which  was  duly  forwarded: 

"I  have  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  letter.  .  .  . 
You  will  excuse  my  pointing  out  to  you  that  it  is  absurd 
to  suppose  me  bound  to  accept  your  angry  'understand- 
ing' of  my  'phrases.'  I  do  not  accept  it  in  the  least:  I 
altogether  reject  it.  I  cannot  characterise  your  letter 
in  an}'^  other  terms  than  those  in  which  you  characterise 
the  article  which  has  given  you  so  much  offence.  If  your 
letter  to  me  were  not  both  'slanderous  and  untrue,'  I 
should  readily  have  discussed  its  subject  with  you  and 
avowed  my  earnest  and  frank  desire  to  set  right  any- 
thing I  may  have  left  wrong.  Your  letter  being  what 
it  is,  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  my  present  reply." 

The  article  had  been  libellous ;  this  letter  was  both  "silly" 
and  "impertinent."  It  is  astounding  that  Dickens  could 
have  assisted  in  the  drafting  of  it.  If  Tliackeray's  letter 
had  been  four  times  as  severe  as  it  was,  that  would  not  have 
altered  the  fact  that  Yates  had  been  guilty  of  inexcusable 
conduct,  and  could  not  have  released  him  from  the  obliga- 
tions of  a  gentleman.  On  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  Thacke- 
ray decided  to  take  more  drastic  action.  He  reported  the 
matter  to  the  Committee  of  the  Garrick  Club — the  club  re- 
ferred to  in  his  letter.  The  Committee  decided  that  "the 
practice  of  publishing  such  articles,  being  reflections  by  one 
member  of  the  club  against  any  other,  will  be  fatal  to  the 
comfort  of  the  club,  and  is  intolerable  in  a  societ}'^  of  gentle- 
men." There  surely  can  be  no  disputing  such  a  proposition. 
Yates  was  called  upon  either  to  make  an  ample  apology  or 
to  retire  from  the  club.  Ho  declined  to  do  either,  and  ap- 
pealed to  a  General  IMeeting.  At  that  meeting,  Dickens, 
Wilkie  Collins,  and  Samuel  Lover  were  among  those  who 
spoke  in  his  defence,  but  the  decision  went  against  him.  He 
then  started  an  action  at  law.     It  was  at  this  stage  that 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  93 

Dickens  made  his  serious  mistake.  He  had  all  through  acted 
as  Yates's  leading  counsel,  yet  now  he  actually  proposed  to 
act  as  a  mediator.     He  wrote  to  Thackeray: 


Can  any  conference  be  held  between  me,  as  representing 
Mr.  Yates,  and  an  appointed  friend  of  yours,  as  repre- 
senting you,  with  the  hope  and  purpose  of  some  quiet 
accommodation  of  this  deplorable  matter,  which  will 
satisfy  the  feelings   of  all  concerned? 

"It  is  right  that,  in  putting  this  to  you,  I  should  tell 
you  that  Mr.  Yates,  when  you  first  wrote  to  him, 
brought  your  letter  to  me.  He  had  recently  done  me  a 
manly  service  I  can  never  forget,  in  some  private  dis- 
tress of  mine  (generally  within  your  knowledge),  and  he 
naturally  thought  of  me  as  his  friend  in  an  emergency. 
I  told  him  that  his  article  was  not  to  be  defended;  but 
I  confirmed  him  in  his  opinion  that  it  was  not  reason- 
ably possible  for  him  to  set  right  what  was  amiss,  on 
the  receipt  of  a  letter  couched  in  the  very  strong  terms 
jou  employed. 

"When  you  appealed  to  the  Garrick  Committee,  and 
they  called  their  General  Meeting,  I  said  at  that  meet- 
ing that  you  and  I  had  been  on  good  terms  for  many 
years,  and  that  I  was  very  sorry  to  find  myself  opposed 
to  you;  but  that  I  was  clear  that  the  Committee  had 
nothing  on  earth  to  do  with  it,  and  that  on  the  strength 
of  my  conviction  I  should  go  against  them. 

"If  this  mediation  that  I  have  suggested  can  take 
place,  I  shall  be  heartily  glad  to  do  my  best  in  it — 
and  God  knows  in  no  hostile  spirit  towards  any  one, 
least  of  all  to  you.  If  it  cannot  take  place,  the  thing 
is  at  least  no  worse  than  it  was ;  and  you  will  burn  this 
letter,  and  I  will  burn  your  answer." 

Of  course  it  could  not  take  place.  It  was  a  most  futile 
proposition,  seeing  that  Dickens  held  such  strong  views. 
Thackeray  replied: 

"I  grieve  to  gather  from  your  letter  that  you  were 
Mr.  Yates's  adviser  in  the  dispute  between  me  and  him^ 


94  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

His  letter  was  the  cause  of  my  appeal  to  the  Garrick 
Club  for  protection  from  insults  against  which  I  had 
no  other  remedy. 

"I  placed  my  grievance  before  the  Committee  of  the 
Garrick  Club  as  the  only  place  where  I  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  meet  Mr.  Yates.  They  gave  their  opinion  of 
his  conduct  and  of  the  reparation  which  lay  in  his  power. 
Not  satisfied  with  their  sentence,  Mr.  Yates  called  for 
a  General  Meeting ;  and,  the  meeting  which  he  had  called 
having  declared  against  him,  he  declines  the  jurisdiction 
which  he  had  asked  for,  and  says  he  will  have  recourse 
to  lawyers. 


"Ever  since  I  submitted  my  case  to  the  club,  I  have 
had,  and  can  have,  no  part  in  the  dispute.  It  is  for 
them  to  judge  if  any  reconcilement  is  possible  with 
your  friend." 

He  added  that  he  had  forwarded  Dickens's  letter  to  the 
Committee  of  the  club,  and  enclosed  a  copy  of  his  covering 
letter.  In  the  latter  he  had  written  that  he  was  still,  as 
ever,  prepared  to  abide  by  their  decision.  What  other  reply 
could  he  have  given  to  Dickens?  The  Committee  did  not 
accept  the  lattei''s  offer.  The  legal  proceedings  fell  through 
on  a  technicality,  but  Yates  resigned  his  membership  of  the 
club,  and  Dickens  walked  out  with  him. 

The  whole  story  is  a  sorry  one,  and  I  scarcely  think  it 
can  be  wondered  at  if  the  knowledge  of  the  part  played  by 
Dickens  embittered  Thackeray.  An  estrangement  ensued 
that  lasted  for  years.  Yates  says :  "There  is  no  doubt  it 
was  pretty  generally  said  at  the  time,  as  it  has  been  said 
since,  and  is  said  even  now,  that  this  whole  affair  was  a 
struggle  for  supremacy  or  an  outburst  of  jealousy  between 
Thackeray  and  Dickens,  and  that  my  part  was  merely  that 
of  a  scapegoat  or  shuttlecock."  This  is  nonsense,  for  when 
Thackeray  first  reported  the  matter  to  the  Committee  of  the 
Garrick  Club,  he  had  no  suspicion  that  Dickens  was  behind 
Yates. 

What  were  Dickens's  feelings  we  do  not  know,  but  we  do 
know — on  the  evidence  of  Dickens's  daughter — that  after  a 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE   THACKERAY  95 

time  Thackeray  entertained  feelings  of  genuine  regret  at  the 
estrangement,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  expressed  to 
her  a  wish  that  there  could  be  a  reconciliation.  It  came 
eventually,  and  it  was  the  "cynic"  who  made  the  first  ad- 
vance. Sir  Theodore  Martin  was  a  witness  of  the  incident. 
He  was  standing,  he  tells  us,  talking  to  Thackeray  in  the 
hall  of  the  Athenaeum  Club,  when  Dickens  came  out  of  the 
room  where  he  had  been  reading  the  morning  papers,  and, 
passing  close  to  them  without  making  any  sign  of  recog- 
nition, crossed  the  hall  to  the  staircase  that  led  to  the  library. 
Suddenly,  Thackeray  broke  away,  and  reached  Dickens  just 
as  the  latter  had  his  foot  on  the  staircase. 

"Dickens  turned  to  him,  and  I  saw  Thackeray  speak 
and  presently  hold  out  his  hand  to  Dickens.  They 
shook  hands,  a  few  words  were  exchanged,  and  imme- 
diately Thackeray  returned  to  me,  saying,  'I'm  glad 
I  have  done  this :  I  said,  "It  is  time  this  foolish  estrange- 
ment should  cease,  and  that  we  should  be  to  each  other 
what  we  used  to  be.  Come ;  shake  hands."  '  Dickens, 
he  said,  seemed  at  first  rather  taken  aback,  but  held 
out  his  hand,  and  some  friendly  words  were  exchanged. 
Thackeray  also  said,  'I  love  the  man,  and  I  could  not 
resist  the  impulse.'  " 

Thirteen  days  later  Dickens  was  standing  at  the  graveside 
of  his  fi-iend  in  Kensal  Green  cemetery.  In  September  1870, 
three  months  after  Dickens  himself  had  been  laid  to  rest, 
an  anonymous  writer  in  "Harper's  Magazine"  recorded:  "I 
remember  Dickens  at  the  grave  of  Thackeray.  .  .  .  On  the 
day  when  that  great  and  true  man  was  laid  in  his  grave  in 
Kensal  Green  .  .  .  Dickens  had  a  look  of  bereavement  in 
his  face  which  was  indescribable.  When  all  others  had  turned 
aside  from  the  grave  he  still  stood  there,  as  if  rooted  to  the 
spot,  watching  with  almost  haggard  eyes  every  spadeful  of 
dust  that  was  thrown  upon  it.  Walking  away  with  some 
friends,  he  began  to  talk,  but  presently  in  some  sentence  his 
voice  quivered  a  little,  and  shaking  hands  all  round  rapidly 
he  went  off  alone." 

That  chance  meeting  at  the  Athenaum   Club   must  have 


96  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

been  held  by  Dickens  in  precious  remembrance  when  he  wrote 
shortly  afterwards  in  the  "Cornhill  Magazine" : 

"The  last  words  he  ever  corrected  in  print  were,  'And 
my  heart  throbbed  with  an  exquisite  bliss.'  God  grant 
that  on  that  Christmas  Eve,  when  he  laid  his  head  back 
on  his  pillow  and  threw  up  his  hands,  as  he  was  wont 
to  do  when  very  weary,  some  consciousness  of  duty  done, 
and  Christian  hope  throughout  life  humbly  cherished, 
may  have  caused  his  own  heart  to  throb  when  he  passed 
away  to  his  Redeemer's  rest!" 


CHAPTER  XIII 


DOUGLAS   JERROLD 


With  Douglas  Jerrold,  Dickens  undoubtedly  had  much 
more  in  common  than  with  Thackeray,  and  there  were  very 
few  of  his  friends  whom  he  held  in  greater  esteem.  To  the 
average  man  of  the  present  generation  Jerrold  is  hardly  a 
figure  of  flesh  and  blood.  It  is  a  pity,  because  in  reality, 
beneath  his  cold  exterior,  behind  the  biting  wit,  there  beat  a 
tender  heart ;  behind  the  satirist,  there  was  a  man  of  a  lovable 
and  winsome  nature,  who  could  be  the  most  delightful  of 
companions  and  truest  of  friends  to  those  who  had  once  won 
his  confidence.  And  who  more  likely  to  win  his  confidence 
than  the  Boz  of  the  late  'thirties  and  early  'forties.?  Both 
had  studied  in  hard  schools,  and  both  had  come  out  of  the 
ordeal  with  a  passionate  desire  to  do  something  to  make 
the  world  brighter  for  those  who  should  come  after  them. 
Those  early  experiences  had  made  Jerrold  angry  with  the 
world;  they  had  not  taught  him  the  broad,  good-humoured 
tolerance  that  they  had  taught  Dickens,  but  they  had  made 
him,  as  they  had  made  the  other,  tender  and  sympathetic 
towards  those  who  suffered  from  the  world's  cruelty  and  neg- 
lect. To  a  man  of  Jerrold's  nature,  the  friendship  of 
Dickens  must  have  meant  much.  And  he  valued  it :  saving 
only  Blanchard's,  there  was  no  friendship  that  he  valued 
more.  And  that  Dickens  had  a  great  regard  for  him,  there 
is  plenty  of  evidence  to  show. 

Yet  even  Dickens  could  not  win  Jerrold's  confidence  at 
once.  They  met  first  in  1835,  and  in  1844  we  find  Dickens 
writing:  "I  wish  we  had  not  lost  so  much  time  in  improving 
our  personal  knowledge  of  each  other."  They  had  been 
friends  all  those  nine  years,  but  there  had  been  none  of  that 
mutual  confidence  which  is  the  highest  manifestation  of 
friendship.  Henceforth,  however,  it  existed,  and  with  a  brief 
unhappy  interruption,  it  lasted  to  the  end. 
97 


98  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Macready  mentions  many  dinner-parties  at  which  the 
friends  were  present,  and  Blanchard  Jerrold,  in  his  biog- 
raphy of  his  father,  recalls  a  happy  evening  at  his  home 
when  the  host  and  Dickens  and  Forster  and  Maclise  and 
Macready  "indulged  in  a  most  active  game  of  leap-frog, 
the  backs  being  requested  to  turn  in  any  obtrusive  'two- 
penny,' with  the  real  zest  of  fourteen !"  And  he  adds : 
"Never  were  boys  more  completely  possessed  of  the  spirit 
of  the  game  in  a  seminary  plaj'ground."  It  is  not  easy  to 
conjure  up  the  picture  in  its  completeness.  Dickens  and 
Maclise  and  Forster? — yes;  Jerrold? — h'm,  well,  yes;  but 
Macread}^ ! — the  staid  and  sedate  W.  C.  M.  playing  at  leap- 
frog !    It  almost  baffles  imagination  ! 

In  184<3  Dickens  and  Jerrold  had  an  amusing  correspond- 
ence. Benjamin  Webster  set  the  ball  rolling  by  offering  a 
prize  of  £500  for  the  best  five-act  comedy.  Jerrold  allowed 
his  wit  to  play  round  this,  and  rallied  all  his  friends  as  pos- 
sible competitors.     To  Dickens  he  wrote: 

"Of  course,  j^ou  have  flung  Cliuzzlewit  to  the  winds, 
and  are  hard  at  work  upon  a  comedy.  Somebody — I 
forget  his  name — told  me  that  you  were  seen  at  the 
Haymarket  door,  with  a  wet  newspaper  in  your  hand, 
knocking  frantically  for  Webster.  .  .  .  IMind,  you 
must  send  in  your  play  by  Michaelmas — it  is  thought 
Michaelmas  day  itself  will  be  selected  by  many  of  the 
competitors ;  for,  as  there  will  be  about  five  hundred 
(at  least)  comedies,  and  as  the  Committee  cannot  read 
above  two  at  a  sitting,  how — unless,  indeed,  they  raffle 
for  choice — can  they  select  the  true  thing — the  phoenix 
from  the  geese — ^b}^  January  1st,  1844?  You  must  make 
haste,  so  don't  go  out  o'  nights." 

To  which  Dickens  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  fooling, 
as  he  so  well  knew  how  to  do,  replied  as  follows: 

"Yes,  you  have  anticipated  my  occupation.  Cliuzzle- 
wit be  d — d.  High  comedy  and  five  hundred  pounds 
are  the  only  matters  I  can  think  of.  I  call  it  Tlie  One 
Thing  Needful,  or  A  Fart  is  Better  than  a  Whole. 


DOUGLAS  JERROLD  99 

"But  I  have  my  comedy  to  fly  to.  My  only  comfort ! 
I  walk  up  and  down  the  street  at  the  back  of  the  theatre 
every  night  and  peep  in  at  the  green-room  window, 
thinking  of  the  time  when  'Dickens'  will  be  called  for 
by  excited  hundreds,  and  won't  come  till  Mr.  Webster 
.  .  .  shall  enter  from  his  dressing  room,  and  quelling 
the  tempest  with  a  smile,  beseech  that  wizard,  if  he  be 
in  the  house  (here  he  looks  up  at  my  box),  to  accept 
the  congratulations  of  the  audience,  and  indulge  them 
with  a  sight  of  the  man  who  has  got  five  hundred 
pounds  in  money,  and  it's  impossible  to  say  how  much 
in  laurel.  Then  I  shall  come  forward,  and  bow  once — 
twice — thrice — roars  of  approbation — Brayvo — brarvo 
— hooray — hoorar — hooroar — one  cheer  more ;  and  ask- 
ing Webster  home  to  supper,  shall  declare  eternal  friend- 
ship for  that  public-spirited  individual   .    .    . 

"I  am  always,  my  dear  Jerrold, 
"Faithfully  your  Friend, 
"The  Congreve  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 
(which  I  mean  to  be  called  in  the  Sunday  papers). 

"P.S. — I  shall  dedicate  it  to  Webster,  beginning :  'My 
dear  Sir, — When  you  first  proposed  to  stininiatc  the 
slumbering  dramatic  talent  of  England,  I  assure  you  I 
had  not  the  least  idea,' — etc.,  etc.,  etc." 

Dickens  and  Jerrold  had  a  true  admiration  for  each 
other's  work.  Several  times  Dickens  writes  appreciatively  of 
his  friend's  books,  and  Forster  tells  us  that  he  derived  special 
enjoyment  from  "The  Story  of  a  Feather."  Jcrrold's  admi- 
ration of  his  friend's  work  was  no  less  enthusiastic.  In  1843 
he  wrote  a  most  appreciative  notice  of  the  Carol  in  "Punch," 
and  in  other  journals  with  which  he  was  associated  he  paid 
tribute  to  Dickens's  genius. 

The  "Punch"  notice  of  the  Carol  drew  from  Dickens  (then 
at  Cremona)  a  long  letter  in  which  he  wrote :  "It  v/as  very 
hearty  and  good  of  you,  Jerrold,  to  make  that  affectionate 
mention  of  the  Carol  in  'Punch,'  and  I  assure  you  it  was  not 
lost  on  the  distant  object  of  your  manly  regard,  but  touched 
him  as  you  wished  and  meant  it  should."  The  letter  also 
included  this  hearty  invitation: 


100  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"You  rather  entertained  a  notion  once  of  coming  to 
see  me  at  Genoa.  I  shall  return  straight,  on  the  ninth 
of  December,  limiting  my  stay  in  town  to  one  week. 
Now  couldn't  you  come  back  with  me?  One  journey, 
that  way,  is  very  cheap,  costing  little  more  than  twelve 
pounds;  and  I  am  sure  the  gratification  to  you  would 
be  high.  I  am  lodged  in  quite  a  wonderful  place,  and 
could  put  you  in  a  painted  room,  as  big  as  a  church 
and  much  more  comfortable.  There  are  pens  and  ink 
upon  the  premises,  orange  trees,  gardens,  battledores 
and  shuttlecocks,  rousing  wood-fires  for  evenings,  and 
a  welcome  worth  having. 

"Come !  .  .  .  Letter  from  a  gentleman  in  a  country 
gone  to  sleep  to  a  gentleman  in  a  country  that  would 
go  to  sleep  too,  and  never  wake  again,  if  some  people 
had  their  way.  You  can  work  in  Genoa.  The  house  is 
used  to  it.  It  is  exactly  a  week's  post.  Have  that  port- 
manteau   looked    to,    and   when   we   meet,    say:    'I    am 


The  temptation  to  the  hard-worked  and  none  too  affluent 
Douglas  Jerrold  must  have  been  sore  indeed.  The  forth- 
coming meeting  referred  to  in  this  letter  was  that  historic 
gathering  at  Forster's  home  on  December  2,  1844,  when 
Dickens  read  The  Chimes  to  a  few  of  his  most  intimate 
friends.  Jerrold  was  there  at  the  novelist's  express  wish — 
"Jerrold  I  should  particularly  wish,"  he  had  written  to 
Forster.  And  in  the  letter  from  which  he  had  just  quoted 
he  had  conveyed  the  invitation  in  these  words :  "Forster  has 
told  you,  or  will  tell  you,  that  I  very  much  wish  you  to  hear 
my  little  Christmas  book;  and  I  hope  you  will  meet  me  at 
his  bidding  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  I  have  tried  to  strike 
a  blow  upon  that  part  of  the  brass  countenance  of  wicked 
Cant;  when  such  a  compliment  is  sorely  needed  at  this  time, 
and  I  trust  that  the  result  of  my  training  is  at  least  the 
exhibition  of  a  strong  desire  to  make  it  a  staggerer.  If 
you  should  think  at  the  end  of  the  four  rounds  (there  are 
no  more)  that  the  said  Cant  in  the  language  of  'Bell's  Life,' 
*comes  up  piping,'  I  shall  be  very  much  the  better  for  it." 

Upon  his  return  to  Italy,  Dickens  renewed  the  invitation, 
and  at  last  Jerrold  was  able  to  respond.     He  and  Forster 


DOUGLAS  JERROLD  101 

and  MaclIsG  met  Dickens  at  Brussels  on  his  way  home,  and 
the  party  passed  a  dcHghtful  week  in  Flanders.  Writing 
of  that  week  long  after,  Dickens  said:  "He  was  the  delight 
of  the  children  all  the  time,  and  they  were  his  delight.  He 
was  in  his  most  brilliant  spirits  and  I  doubt  if  he  were  ever 
more  humorous  in  his  life.  But  the  most  enduring  im- 
pression that  he  left  upon  us  who  are  grown  up — and  we 
have  all  often  spoken  of  it  since — was  that  Jerrold,  in  his 
amiable  capacity  of  being  easily  pleased,  in  his  freshness, 
in  his  good  nature,  in  his  cordiality  and  in  the  unrestrained 
openness  of  his  heart,  had  quite  captivated  us." 

In  subsequent  years,  when  Dickens  was  in  France  and 
Italy  writing  Dombey,  he  extended  further  invitations  to 
his  friend.  To  a  letter  containing  one  of  these  invitations, 
Jerrold  replied: 

"Let  me  break  this  long  silence  with  heartiest  con- 
gratulation. Your  book  has  spoken  like  a  trumpet  to 
the  nation,  and  it  is  to  me  a  pleasure  to  believe  that 
you  have  faith  in  the  sincerity  of  my  gladness  at  your 
triumph.  You  have  rallied  your  old  thousands  again; 
and,  what  is  most  delightful,  you  have  rebuked  and  for- 
ever 'put  down'  the  small  things,  half  knave,  half  fool, 
that  love  to  make  the  failure  they  'feed  on.'  They  are 
under  your  boot — tread  'em  to  paste." 

Then,  after  explaining  that  he  had  not  written  before 
because  he  had  hoped  against  hope  to  be  able  to  accept  the 
invitation,  he  continued: 

"And  so  time  went  on,  and  Dombey  comes  out,  and 
now,  to  be  sure,  I  write.  Had  Domhey  fallen  apoplectic 
from  the  steam-press  of  Messrs.  Bradbury  and  Evans, 
of  course  your  letter  would  still  have  remained  unan- 
swered. But,  with  all  England  shouting  'Viva  Dickens,' 
it  is  a  part  of  my  gallant  nature  to  squeak  through  my 
quill,  'brayvo,'  too." 

Dickens's  reply  was  as  hearty: 

"This  day  week,  I  finished  my  little  Christmas  book  ^ 
(writing  towards  the  close  the  exact  words  of  a  pas- 

»  Tha  Cricket  on  the  Hearth. 


102  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

sage  in  your  affectionate  letter  received  this  morning: 
to  wit,  'after  all,  life  has  something  serious  in  it')  and 
ran  over  here  for  a  week's  rest.  I  cannot  tell  you  how 
much  true  gratification  I  have  had  in  your  most  hearty 
letter.  Forster  told  me  that  the  same  spirit  breathed 
through  a  notice  of  Dombey  in  your  paper;  and  I  have 
been  saying  since  to  Kate  and  Georgy  that  there  is  no 
such  good  way  of  testing  the  worth  of  literary  friend- 
ship as  by  comparing  its  influence  on  one's  view  with 
any  that  literary  animosity  can  produce.  Mr.  W.  will 
throw  me  into  a  violent  fit  of  anger  for  the  moment, 
it  is  true;  but  his  acts  and  deeds  pass  into  the  death 
of  all  bad  things  next  day,  and  right  out  of  my  memory ; 
whereas  a  generous  sympathy  like  yours  is  ever  present 
to  me,  ever  fresh  and  new  to  me — always  stimulating, 
cheerful  and  delightful.  The  pain  of  unjust  malice 
is  lost  in  an  hour.  The  pleasure  of  a  generous  friend- 
ship is  the  steadiest  joy  in  the  world.  What  a  glorious 
and  comfortable  thing  that  is  to  think  of !" 

In  1856  Jerrold  was  once  more  able  to  snatch  a  brief  holi- 
day, and  he  spent  some  weeks  with  Dickens  and  Wilkie  Collins 
at  Boulogne.  But  it  was  not  always  Dickens  who  was  the 
tempter,  as  witness  the  following: 

*'My  dear  Dickens, 

"When,  when  we  can  count  upon  a  dry  after- 
noon, won't  you  and  the  Hidalgo  and  Mac. — and  the 
ladies,  come  down  here"  (Putney  Lower  Common)  "to 
a  cut  of  country  lamb  and  a  game  of  bowls.''  Our  turf 
is  coming  up  so  velvety.  I  intend  to  have  a  waistcoat 
sliced  from  it,  trimmed  with  daisies.  ...  I  wish  you 
could  see  (and  eat)  the  dish  of  strawberries  just 
brought  in  for  breakfast  by  my  girl  Polly — 'all,'  as 
she  says,  'big  and  square  as  pincushions.'  " 

In  1845  Jerrold  was  associated  with  Dickens  in  two  of  the 
most  notable  undertakings  of  the  novelist's  life.  He  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  "Daily  News,"  and  he  was  one  of  the 
instigators  of  the  amateur  theatricals.  He  was,  in  fact, 
almost   the   first   to   agree  to    serve   under  Dickens    on   the 


DOUGLAS  JERROLD  103 

"Daily  News,"  and  he  was  appointed  a  leader-writer.  He 
was  very  active  in  the  preparations,  and  enthusiastic  for  the 
success  of  the  undertaking.  On  the  first  night  (in  January 
1846),  he  was  a  frequent  and  anxious  visitor  to  the  compos- 
ing-room. When  the  paper  had  been  printed,  and  started  on 
its  great  career,  around  the  "stone"  in  that  room, 

"there  gathered  ...  an  assembly  of  which  Charles 
Dickens  was  the  chief  and  informal  president,  and  of 
which  his  various  writers  and  the  leading  persons  con- 
cerned in  the  newly  established  paper  were  the  principal 
members.  It  was  an  interesting  group,  and  the  bulk 
of  the  little  throng  consisted  of  the  compositors  by 
whom  the  'Daily  News'  had  been  set  up.  The  object 
was  to  drink  success  to  the  enterprise,  and  a  few  pithy 
speeches  were  made.  Charles  Dickens  probably  ex- 
patiated in  terms  of  general  brotherhood,  and  invited 
the  sympathy  of  the  men  of  toil  with  the  men  of  mind, 
whose  efforts  were  to  be  devoted  in  this  new  channel 
for  the  common  good.  But  a  more  express  record  has 
remained  of  a  word  spoken  by  Douglas  Jerrold.  His 
was  a  fit  figure  for  such  a  scene.  As  he  stood  by  the 
'stone,'  frail  of  build,  with  eager  eyes,  aquiline  face  and 
with  hair  flying  back  from  his  forehead  down  to  his 
shoulders,  he  brought  his  fist  down  with  a  bang  as  he 
told  the  men,  with  emotion  which  was  long  remembered 
among  them,  how  he  had  'worked  his  way  up  through 
stony-hearted  London.'  "  ^ 

But  it  is  by  his  association  with  the  amateur  theatricals 
that  Jerrold  is  best  known  to  Dickensians.  I  think  it  a  sage 
assumption  that  it  was  he  and  Clarkson  Stanfield  who  really 
instigated  those  performances.  Long  years  before,  these 
two  had  been  comrades  on  board  H.M.S.  "Namur" ;  Jerrold 
had  been  middy,  Stanfield  foremast  man.  In  those  days  they 
had  frequently  got  up  theatricals.  Jerrold  left  the  service 
in  1815,  and  the  two  met  no  more  until  they  were  brought 
face  to  face  in  1832  at  a  rehearsal  of  Jerrold's  "The  Rent 
Day."  Stanfield  was  the  scene  painter.  The  old  friendship 
was  renewed.     Blanchard  Jerrold  writes: 

"Some  years  hence,  they  shall  be  sauntering  in  Rich- 
1  "The  'Daily  News'  Jubilee." 


104  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

mond  Park.  .  .  .  There  shall  be  ofher  friends  with  them. 
Matters  theatricals  shall  bubble  up  in  the  careless  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  conversation;  and  suddenly  the  'Namur' 
middy  .  .  .  shall  cry — 'Let's  have  a  play,  Stanfield, 
like  we  had  on  board  the  "Namur."  '  Hence  those  many 
merry  evenings  passed  among  cordial  friends ;  those 
hearty  laughs  over  gross  stage  blunders,  those  genial 
suppers  after  rehearsals,  those  curious  evenings  spent 
upon  the  stage  of  Miss  Kelly's  little  theatre,  when  the 
little  figure  of  the  'Namur'  midshipman  might  be  dimly 
seen  in  the  centre  of  the  dark  pit,  all  alive;  but  the 
presence  of  which  was  most  authoritatively  proved  very 
often,  when  a  clear  voice  chirped  to  the  laughing  actors 
some  pungent  witticism  or  queer  turn  of  thought,  pro- 
voking 'What,  are  you  there,  Jerrold?'  as  a  good- 
natured  reply  from  the  victim." 

The  suggestion  having  once  been  made,  Dickens,  whose 
enthusiasm  had  been  kindled  by  the  amateur  theatricals  in 
Canada,  entered  into  the  scheme  with  all  the  zest  of  which 
he  was  capable,  when  he  returned  from  Italy  in  the  following 
year.  Miss  Kelly's  theatre  was  taken,  and  "Every  Man  in 
His  Humour"  was  the  play  selected,  Jerrold  taking  the  part 
of  Master  Stephen.  Macready  tells  us  that  he  did  it  very 
badly,  but  Macready's  criticism  and  condemnations  must  not 
be  taken  too  literally,  and  in  this  case  he  is  not  supported 
by  any  member  who  has  left  any  record  of  that  evening  in 
September  1846.  Then  followed  the  performances  on  behalf 
of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole.  The  net  proceeds  of  these 
were  five  hundred  guineas.  This  was  not  so  much  as  had 
been  hoped,  so  Dickens  conceived  the  idea  of  increasing  it 
by  writing,  in  the  character  of  Mrs.  Gamp,  an  account  of 
the  journey  to  the  north  and  of  the  performances.  "It  was 
to  be,"  says  Forster,  "a  new  'Pilgrims'  Progress.'  .  .  . 
Mrs.  Gamp  was  to  have  always  an  invincible  animosity 
towards  Jerrold,  for  Caudle  reasons."  The  first  pages  were 
written,  but  the  artists  who  were  to  have  illustrated  the  thing 
seem  to  have  lacked  enthusiasm,  and  so  it  was  never  com- 
pleted. But  in  the  fragment  that  Forster  preserved,  Mrs. 
Gamp  expressed  her  feelings  towards  Jerrold  in  the  following 
terms : 


DOUGLAS  JERROLD  105 

"Mrs.  Harris,  when  I  see  that  little  willain  bodily 
before  me,  it  give  me  such  a  turn  that  I  was  all  in  a 
tremble.  If  I  hadn't  lost  my  umbereller  in  the  cab,  I 
must  have  done  him  a  injury  with  it!  Oh  the  bragian 
little  traitor !  right  among  the  ladies,  Mrs.  Harris ;  look- 
ing his  wickedest  and  deceitfullest  of  eyes  while  he  was 
a-talking  to  'cm;  laughing  at  his  own  jokes  as  loud  as 
you  please;  holding  his  hat  in  one  hand  to  cool  his- 
self,  and  tossing  back  his  iron-grey  mop  of  a  head  of 
hair  with  the  other,  as  if  it  was  so  much  shavings — 
there,  Mrs.  Harris,  I  see  him,  getting  encouragement 
from  the  pretty  delooded  creeturs,  which  never  know'd 
that  sweet  saint,  Mrs.  C,  as  I  did,  and  being  treated 
with  as  much  confidence  as  if  he'd  never  wiolated  none 
of  the  domestic  ties,  and  never  showed  up  nothing!  Oh 
the  aggrawation  of  that  Dougledge !  Mrs.  Harris,  if 
I  hadn't  apologized  to  Mr.  Wilson,  and  put  a  little 
bottle  to  my  lips  which  was  in  my  pocket  for  the  jour- 
ney, and  which  it  is  very  rare  indeed  I  have  about  me, 
I  could  not  have  abared  the  sight  of  him — there,  Mrs. 
Harris!  I  could  not! — I  must  have  tore  him,  or  have 
give  way  and  fainted." 

In  the  performances  of  1848,  in  aid  of  the  fund  for  the 
endowment  of  a  pei-petual  curatorship  of  Shakespeare's  home, 
Jerrold  took  no  part,  but  he  was  to  the  fore  again  in  1851, 
in  the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art  performances,  playing 
Mr.  Shadowly  Softhead  in  Lytton's  "Not  so  Bad  as  we 
Seem,"  at  Devonshire  House,  and  taking  equally  prominent 
parts  during  the  provincial  tour. 

After  this  "Splendid  Strolling,"  there  arrived  that  un- 
happy estrangement  to  which  reference  has  been  made.  What 
was  its  cause,  we  shall  never  know,  but  we  have  Dickens's 
assurance  that  it  was  not  on  any  personal  subject,  and  did 
not  involve  an  angry  word.  But  months  passed  and  they  did 
not  even  see  each  other.  And  then  the  clouds  were  swept 
away.  The  old  friends  met  in  a  London  club.  Each  was 
with  his  own  part^^  and  they  sat  back  to  back  without  any 
recognition.  Suddenly,  however,  Jerrold  swung  his  chair 
round  and  with  outstretched  hands  exclaimed,  "For  God's 
sake,  let  us  be  friends  again.     A  life's  not  long  enough  for 


106  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

this."  Those  outstretched  hands  were  grasped  as  lovingly 
as  they  had  been  offered,  and  the  sun  of  friendship  was  never 
more  obscured.  A  couple  of  years  later,  Jerrold  was  dead, 
and  Dickens  was  writing  to  his  son: 

"Few  of  his  friends,  I  think,  can  have  had  more 
favourable  opportunities  of  knowing  him  in  his  gentlest 
and  most  affectionate  aspect,  than  I  had.  He  was  one 
of  the  gentlest  and  most  affectionate  of  men.  I  remem- 
ber very  well  that  when  I  first  saw  him  about  the  year 
1835,  when  I  went  into  his  sick  room  in  Brittle  Grove, 
Brompton,  I  found  him  propped  up  in  a  great  chair, 
bright-eyed  and  quick  and  eager  in  spirit,  but  very  lame 
in  body,  he  gave  me  an  impression  of  tenderness.  It 
never  became  disassociated  from  him.  There  was  noth- 
ing cynical  or  sour  in  his  heart  as  I  knew  it.  In  the 
company  of  children  and  young  people  he  was  particu- 
larly happy,  and  showed  to  extraordinary  advantage. 
He  never  was  so  gay,  so  sweet  tempered,  so  pleasing  and 
so  pleased  as  then.  Among  my  own  children  I  have 
observed  this  many  and  many  a  time." 

Jerrold  left  his  family  none  too  well  off,  and  on  the  day 
of  his  funeral,  Dickens,  with  that  large-hcartedness  which  dic- 
tated many  similar  enterprises,  drew  up  a  scheme  for  help- 
ing them.  "I  propose,"  he  wrote  to  Forster,  "that  there 
shall  be  a  night  at  a  theatre,  when  the  actors  shall  play  *The 
Rent  Day'  and  'Black-Eyed  Susan' ;  another  night  elsewhere, 
with  a  lecture  from  Th.ackeray ;  a  day  reading  by  me ;  a  night 
reading  by  me ;  a  lecture  by  Russell  and  a  subscription  per- 
formance of  'The  Frozen  Deep,'  as  at  Tavistock  House. 
...  I  have  got  hold  of  Arthur  Smith  as  the  best  man  of 
business  I  know,  and  go  to  work  with  him  to-morrow  morn- 
ing. .  .  .  My  confident  hope  is  that  we  shall  get  close  upon 
two  thousand  pounds." 

And  Forster  records  that  "the  friendly  enterprise  was 
carried  to  a  close  with  a  vigour,  promptitude  and  success 
that  corresponded  with  this  opening.  In  addition  to  the 
performances  named,  there  were  others  in  the  country,  also 
organized  by  Dickens,  in  which  he  took  active  personal  part ; 
and  the  result  did  not  fall  short  of  his  expectations." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    LANDSEERS 

Writing  of  that  summer  at  Twickenham,  Forster  says: 
"Edwin  Landseer,  all  the  world's  favourite,  and  the  excellent 
Stanfield,  came  a  few  months  later,  in  the  Devonshire  Ter- 
race days."  Landseer  was  one  of  the  novelist's  best-liked 
friends  of  his  earlier  years.  For  him,  we  are  told,  Dickens 
had  the  highest  admiration  and  personal  regard.  He  drifted 
somewhat  from  the  circle  as  he  grew  in  popularity ;  came  to 
care  more  for  the  glamour  of  drawing-rooms  and  the  admira- 
tion of  Society  than  for  the  old  happy  intercourse  with  such 
congenial  spirits  as  Maclise,  Stanfield,  Dickens,  and  Forster. 
"Indeed,"  says  one  of  his  biographers,  Mr.  James  A.  Man- 
son,  "his  stiff  behaviour  and  distant  air  were  so  painful  that 
many  of  his  older  comrades  preferred  to  stand  aloof  rather 
than  behold  the  deterioration  of  his  nature  and  character. 
This  vexed  him  in  turn,  for  in  his  innermost  heart  he  felt 
that  his  friends  were  justified,  and  that  he  was  to  blame." 
The  actual  friendship  with  Dickens  was  never  broken,  and 
even  so  late  as  1870  he  was  a  guest  at  the  dinner  which  the 
novelist  gave  at  Hj^de  Park  Place  to  celebrate  Mr.  Percy 
Fitzgerald's  wedding.     But  the  old  intimacy  vanished. 

They  became  acquainted  while  Nichelhy  was  running  its 
course,  and  Landseer  was  quickly  established  as  one  of  that 
brilliant  circle  of  which  Dickens  was  the  bright  particular 
star.  It  should  be  said  that  he  was  already  an  admirer  of 
Dickens's  works,  and  in  this  connection  a  capital  story  was 
told  by  the  late  W.  P.  Frith.  While  Frith  was  a  student 
at  the  Royal  Academy  Schools,  Landseer  took  his  turn  with 
the  other  R.A.s  as  a  "Visitor  at  the  Schools."  He  read  the 
whole  time,  we  are  told,  and  one  evening  his  father — very 
old  and  very  deaf — came  in  with  his  speaking-trumpet, 
and  said: 

107 


108  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"You  are  not  drawing  then;  why  don't  you  draw?" 

"Don't  feel  inclined,"  shouted  the  son  down  the 
trumpet. 

"Then  you  ought  to  feel  inclined.  That's  a  fine 
figure;  get  out  your  paper  and  draw." 

"Plaven't  got  any  paper,"  said  the  son. 

"What's  that  book?"  said  the  father. 

"Oliver  Twist,"  said  Edwin  Landseer,  in  a  voice  loud 
enough  to  reach  Trafalgar  Square. 

"Is  it  about  art?" 

"No,  it's  about  Oliver  Twist." 

"Let  me  look  at  it.  Ha !  It's  some  of  Dickens's  non- 
sense, I  see.  You'd  much  better  draw  than  waste  your 
time  upon  such  stuff  as  that." 

In  the  Devonshire  Terrace  days,  social  foregatherings 
were  frequent,  and  Landseer  was  a  shining  light  at  most  of 
them.  He  was  ever  a  popular  guest  at  the  children's  theatri- 
cals too. 

Landseer  was  among  those  whom  Dickens  specially  de- 
sired to  be  invited  to  the  private  reading  of  The  Chimes  at 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  in  1844,  but  he  was  not  present.  Two 
years  later  he  did  his  only  illustration  for  Dickens,  namely 
a  drawing  of  Boxer  for  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth.  He 
spent  some  time  with  Dickens  in  Paris  in  1855,  and  they  had 
some  jolly  times  together,  reminiscent  of  old  days.  After 
that  they  seem  to  have  met  very  rarely,  though,  as  I  have 
said,  the  friendship  stood  until  the  end. 

Landseer's  two  brothers,  Tom  and  Charles,  were  also 
friends  of  Dickens's.  Charles  often  joined  the  circle  at 
Devonshire  Terrace  and  elsewhere,  but  Tom  was  debarred 
from  such  delights  owing  to  his  deafness.  They  were  both 
members  of  the  Shakespeare  Society,  but  Edwin  does  not 
seem  to  have  belonged  to  that  body.  There  is  scarcely  any 
reference  to  their  association  with  Dickens,  but  the  follow- 
ing letter  of  the  novelist's  to  Macready  serves  to  indicate 
the  reality  of  the  friendship  he  felt  for  Tom: 

"Tom  Landseer — that  is  the  deaf  one  whom  every- 
body quite  loves  for  his  sweet  nature  under  a  most  de- 
plorable infirmity — Tom  Landseer  asked  me  if  I  would 


THE  LANDSEERS  109 

present  to  you  for  him  the  accompanying  engraving 
which  he  has  executed  from  a  picture  by  his  brother 
Edwin ;  submitting  it  to  you  as  a  little  tribute  from  an 
unknown  but  ardent  admirer  of  your  genius,  which 
speaks  to  his  heart,  although  it  does  not  find  its  way 
there  through  his  ears.  I  readily  undertook  the  task, 
and  send  it  herewith. 

"I  urged  him  to  call  upon  you  with  me  and  proffer 
it  boldly ;  but  he  is  a  very  modest  and  delicately-minded 
creature,  and  was  shy  of  intruding.  If  you  thank  him 
through  me,  perhaps  you  will  say  something  about  my 
bringing  him  to  call,  and  so  gladden  the  gentle  artist 
and  make  him  happy." 


CHAPTER  XV 


NOBLE    OLD    STANNY 


The  other  friend  specially  mentioned  by  Forster  in  con- 
nection with  the  Devonshire  Terrace  days  was  Clarkson 
Stanfield— "Noble  old  Stanny,"  the  best-loved  friend  that 
Dickens  ever  had.  It  seems  a  bold  thing  to  say  that  there 
was  one  who  came  before  Forster  in  Dickens's  regard,  but 
there  is  plenty  of  evidence  to  support  it.  Forster  was  the 
"guide,  philosopher  and  friend,"  the  entirely  trustworthy 
adviser  and  confidant,  the  friend  upon  whom  Dickens  could 
lean,  the  solid  common-sense  guide ;  Stanfield  was  the  lov- 
able man,  "the  very  spirit  of  kindly  feeling,"  as  Macready 
called  him,  the  man  for  whom  the  novelist,  "always  had  a 
most  tender  love,"  the  man  who  was  ever  ready  at  almost 
any  sacrifice  to  serve  his  fellows,  contri\'ing  to  do  it  so  that 
they  were  almost  unconscious  of  the  service. 

Stanfield  was  introduced  into  the  Dickens  Circle  by  Jer- 
rold,  and  quickl}^  was  an  established  favourite  there.  In 
1839  we  find  him  at  the  Nickleby  dinner;  in  1842  he  was  at 
the  Greenwich  dinner,  and  he  was,  as  we  have  seen,  one  of 
the  party  that  made  that  memorable  trip  into  Cornwall.  He 
was  the  oldest  member  of  the  party  (Dickens  was  nineteen 
years  his  junior),  but  he  was  as  young  as  any  of  them  in 
spirit  and  in  capacity  for  enjo^^ment.  ".  .  .  Stanfield  got 
into  such  apoplectic  entanglements,"  Dickens  wrote  to  Prof, 
Felton,  "that  we  were  often  obliged  to  beat  him  on  the  back 
with  portmanteaus  before  we  could  recover  him.  Seriously, 
I  do  not  believe  there  never  was  such  a  trip."  And  in 
another  part  of  the  same  letter  he  wrote:  "Stanfield  (an 
old  sailor)  consulted  an  enormous  map  on  all  disputed 
points  of  wayfaring;  and  referred,  moreover,  to  a  pocket- 
compass  and  other  scientific  instruments."  Among  the  sou- 
venirs of  the  trip  was  a  sketch  by  Stanfield  of  the  Logan 
Stone,  which,  says  Forster,  "laughingly  sketched  both  the 
110 


Clakkson  Stanfield,  R.A. 


"NOBLE  OLD  STANNY"  111 

charm  of  what  was  seen  and  the  mirth  of  what  was  done, 
for  it  perched  me  on  the  top  of  the  stone.  It  is  historical, 
however,  the  ascent  having  been  made." 

"In  a  letter  to  Stanfield  written  from  Albaro  a  year  or 
two  later,  Dickens  made  a  humorous  allusion  to  this  trip  : 

"I  love  you  so  truly,  and  have  such  pride  and  joy  of 
heart  in  your  friendship,  that  I  don't  know  how  to 
begin  writing  to  you.  When  I  think  how  you  are  walk- 
ing up  and  down  London  in  that  portly  surtout,  and 
can't  receive  proposals  from  Dick  ^  to  go  to  the  theatre, 
I  fall  into  a  state  between  laughing  and  crying,  and 
want  some  friendly  back  to  smite.  'Jc-im !'  'Aye,  aye, 
your  honour,'  is  in  my  ears  every  time  I  walk  upon  the 
sea-shore  here;  and  the  number  of  expeditions  I  make 
into  Cornwall  in  my  sleep,  the  springs  of  Flys  I  break, 
and  the  bowls  of  punch  I  drink,  would  soften  a  heart 
of  stone." 

From  this  time  no  enjoyment  seems  to  have  been  complete 
to  Dickens  unless  it  was  shared  by  this  friend.  They  were 
always  exchanging  visits,  and  Stanfield  was  one  of  the  mov- 
ing spirits  at  all  parties  at  the  novelist's  house. 

In  the  early  days  he  often  shared  with  Maclise  and 
Forster  in  those  jaunts  to  Hampstead  which  have  made  Jack 
Straw's  Castle  famous.  Here  is  a  letter  to  Forster :  "Stan- 
field and  Mac  have  come  in,  and  we  are  going  to  Hampstead 
to  dinner.  I  leave  Betsy  Prig,  as  you  know,  so  don't  you 
make  a  scruple  about  leaving  Mrs.  Harris.  We  shall  stroll 
leisurely  up,  to  give  you  time  to  join  us,  and  dinner  will  be 
on  the  table  at  Jack  Straw's  at  four."  Humorous  invita- 
tions of  this  kind  were  always  passing  between  the  friends. 

In  1844  the  artist  was  at  the  Chuzzlewit  dinner.  To  this 
dinner  he  brought  the  eccentric  Turner,  who,  Forster 
records,  "had  enveloped  his  throat,  that  sultry  summer  day, 
in  a  huge  red  belcher-handkerchief  which  nothing  would 
induce  him  to  remove."  During  that  Italian  stay  Dickens 
wrote  to  Stanfield  a  long  letter  inviting  him   to  pay  him 

» Apparently  a  nickname  of  Stanfield'a  for  Dickens.  Some  of  the  latter's 
letters  to  the  painter  are  thus  signed,  and  the  name  occurs  in  no  other  con- 
nection. 


112  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

a  visit:  "I  wish  you  would  come  this  way  and  see  me  at 
that  Pahizzo  Peschiere!  Was  ever  man  so  welcome  as  I 
would  make  jou !  What  a  truly  gentlemanly  action  it  would 
be  to  bring  Mrs.  Stanfield  and  the  baby.  And  how  Kate 
and  her  sister  would  wave  pocket-handkerchiefs  from  the 
wharf  in  joyful  welcome!  Ah,  what  a  glorious  proceeding!" 
Stanfield  contributed  illustrations  to  four  of  the  Christ- 
mas books — two  to  The  Chimes,  one  to  Tlie  Cricket  on  the 
Hearth,  three  to  The  Battle  of  Life,  and  three  to  The 
Haunted  Man,  For  his  Chimes  illustrations  he  refused  to 
accept  any  payment,  and  so  Dickens  gave  him  a  silver 
claret  jug  which  was  inscribed,  "In  memory  of  The  Chimes." 
With  it  he  sent  the  following  letter: 

"My  dear  Stanny, 

"I  send  you  a  claret  jug.  ...  I  need  not  say 
how  much  I  should  value  another  little  sketch  from 
your  extraordinary  hand  in  this  year's  small  volume 
to  which  Mac.  again  does  the  frontispiece.  But  I 
cannot  hear  of  it  and  will  not  have  it  (though  the 
gratification  of  such  aid  to  me  is  really  beyond  expres- 
sion) unless  you  will  so  far  consent  to  make  it  a  matter 
of  business  as  to  receive  without  asking  any  questions 
a  cheque  in  return  from  the  publishers.  Don't  mis- 
understand me — though  I  am  not  afraid  there  is  much 
danger  of  3'^our  doing  so,  for  between  us  misunderstand- 
ing is,  I  hope,  not  easy.  I  know  perfectly  well  that  no 
terms  would  induce  you  to  go  out  of  your  way  in 
such  regard  for  perhaps  anybody  else.  I  cannot,  nor 
do  I  desire  to,  vanquish  the  friendly  obligation  which 
help  from  you  imposes  on  me.  But  I  am  not  the  sole 
proprietor  of  these  little  books;  and  it  would  be  mon- 
strous in  you  if  you  were  to  dream  of  putting  a  scratch 
into  a  second  one  without  some  shadowy  reference  to 
the  other  partners ;  ten  thousand  times  more  monstrous 
in  me  if  any  consideration  on  earth  could  induce  me 
to  permit  it,  which  nothing  will  or  shall.  So  see  what 
it  comes  to.  If  you  will  do  me  the  favour  on  my  terms, 
it  will  be  more  acceptable  to  me,  my  dear  Stanfield, 
than  I  could  possibly  tell  you.  If  you  will  not  be  so 
generous,  you  deprive  me  of  the  satisfaction  of  receiv- 


"NOBLE  OLD   STANNY"  113 

ing  it  at  your  hands,  and  shut  me  out  from  that  pos- 
sibility altogether.  What  a  stony-hearted  ruffian  you 
must  be  in  such  a  case !" 

Despite  this,  Stanfield  seems  to  have  got  his  way.  He  did 
the  illustrations,  but  refused  to  accept  payment,  and  this 
time  Dickens  gave  him  a  silver  salver,  inscribed,  "Clarkson 
Stanfield  from  Charles  Dickens."  And  in  the  following 
year  he  did  "three  morsels  of  English  landscape  which  had 
a  singular  charm  for  Dickens  at  the  time,  and  seem  to  me 
still  of  their  kind  quite  faultless."  ^  The  novehst  wrote  to 
Forster:  "It  is  a  delight  to  look  at  these  little  landscapes 
of  the  dear  old  boy.  How  gentle  and  elegant,  and  yet 
how  manly  and  vigorous  they  are!  I  have  a  perfect  joy 
in  them."  It  ought  also  to  be  noted  that  Stanfield  did  a 
water-colour  drawing  of  "The  Britannia,"  in  which  Dickens 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1842,  with  a  view  to  its  being  used 
as  a  frontispiece  to  the  first  cheap  edition  of  American 
Notes.  This  was  purchased  in  1870  by  the  Earl  of  Darnley 
for  £110  5s. 

In  1857  Dickens  paid  the  "dear  old  boy"  a  tribute  which 
was  very  truly  appreciated  by  dedicating  Little  Dorrit 
to  him. 

Stanfield  was  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  Guild  of  Litera- 
ture and  Art,  and  worked  as  untiringly  as  Dickens  for  its 
success.  As  all  the  world  knows,  he  rendered  tremendous 
help  in  connection  with  the  famous  amateur  theatricals, 
painting  scenery  for  some  of  the  plays,  that  ranks  among 
his  best  work.  He  did  not  act,  though  when  it  was  decided 
in  1845  to  play  "Every  Man  in  His  Humour,"  he  was  cast 
for  the  part  of  Downright,  and  even  rehearsed  twice.  Then, 
however,  he  did  what  Maclise  had  done  previously,  "took 
fright  and  ran  away,"  and  Dudley  Costello  took  his  place. 

In  1851  came  the  Guild  performances.  For  "Not  so  Bad 
as  we  Seem,"  Stanfield  painted  one  of  the  scenes — an  open 
space  near  the  river.  Four  years  later  came  the  perform- 
ances of  Wilkie  Collins's  "The  Lighthouse"  in  "the  smallest 
theatre  in  the  world"  at  Tavistock  House.  It  was  for  this 
play  that  Stanfield  painted  his  famous  drop-scene  of  the 

>  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens. 


114  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Lighthouse,  which,  at  the  Gadshill  sale  after  Dickens's  death, 
fetched  one  thousand  guineas.  Forster  gives  the  following 
version  of  how  this  scene  came  to  be  painted.  With  Mark 
Lemon,  Dickens  walked  across  Hampstead  to  visit  the  artist. 
"He  has  been  very  ill,"  Forster  quotes  the  novelist  as  writ- 
ing, "and  he  told  us  that  large  pictures  are  too  much  for 
him,  and  he  must  confine  himself  to  small  ones.  But  I  would 
not  have  this,  I  declared  he  must  paint  bigger  ones  than 
ever,  and  what  would  he  think  of  beginning  upon  an  act- 
drop  for  a  proposed  vast  theatre  at  Tavistock  House?  He 
laughed  and  caught  at  tliis,  we  cheered  him  up  very  much, 
and  he  said  he  was  quite  a  man  again." 

Tliis  scarcely  tallies  with  Dickens's  own  published  letters. 
This  walk  across  Hampstead  is  recorded  as  having  taken 
place  in  April,  but  on  May  20  we  find  Dickens  writing  to 
Stanfield  as  follows: 

"I  have  a  little  lark  in  contemplation,  if  you  will 
help  it  to  fly. 

"Collins  has  done  a  melodrama  (a  regular  old-style 
melodrama),  in  which  there  is  a  very  good  notion.  I 
am  going  to  act  it,  as  an  experiment,  in  the  children's 
theatre  here — I,  Mark,  Collins,  Egg,  and  my  daughter 
Mary,  the  whole  dram,  pers.;  our  families  and  yours 
the  whole  audience ;  for  I  want  to  make  the  stage  large 
and  shouldn't  have  room  for  above  five-and-twenty 
spectators.  Now,  there  is  only  one  scene  in  the  piece, 
and  that,  my  tarry  lad,  is  the  inside  of  a  lighthouse. 
Will  you  come  and  paint  it  for  us,  one  night,  and 
we'll  all  turn  to  and  help?  It  is  a  mere  wall,  of 
course,  but  Mark  and  I  have  sworn  that  you  must  do  it. 
.  .  .  Write  me  a  line  in  reply.  We  mean  to  burst  on 
an  astonished  world  with  the  melodrama,  without  any 
note  of  preparation." 

And  two  days  later  he  wrote  as  follows  (the  italics  are 
my  own)  : 

"Your  note  came  while  I  was  out  walking.  Even  if 
I  had  been  at  home  I  could  not  have  managed  to  dine 
together  to-day,  being  under  a  beastly  engagement  to 


i' 


^••■K" 


ii  if!':  |)| 


Performance  of  "Not  So  Bad  as  We  Seem,"  Before  Queen  Victoria  and 
Prince  Albert,  at  Devonshikk  House,  on  AIay  16,  1851 

From    a   C'onfrwporary  Priut 


"The  Lighthouse" 

Painted   by  Clarlcson  .Stanfield,  R.A.,  for  the  Private   Theatricals 


"NOBLE  OLD  STANNY"  115 

dine  out.  Unless  I  hear  from  you  to  the  contrary,  I 
shall  expect  you  here  some  time  to-morrow,  and  will 
remain  at  home.  I  only  wait  your  instructions  to  get 
the  little  canvases  made.  0,  what  a  pify  it  is  not  the 
outside  of  the  lighfus,  with  the  sea  a-rowling  agin  it! 
Never  mind,  we'll  get  an  effect  out  of  the  inside,  and 
there's  a  storm  and  ship  wreck  'off' ;  and  the  great 
ambition  of  my  life  will  be  achieved  at  last,  in  the  wear- 
ing of  a  pair  of  very  coarse  petticoat  trousers.  So 
hoorar  for  the  salt  sea,  mate,  and  bouse  up !  Ever 
affectionately, 

"Dicky." 

This  expression  of  regret  that  the  scene  is  not  to  be  "the 
outside  of  the  light'us,  with  the  sea  a-rowling  agin  it,"  is 
irreconcilable  with  Forster's  statement  that  Stanfield  had 
actually  been  asked  to  paint  such  a  scene  a  month  before. 
However,  the  fact  is  that  that  scene  was  painted,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  interior.  It  took  the  artist  just  two  morn- 
ings to  execute,  and  it  is  one  of  his  best  achievements ! 

In  1856  "The  Frozen  Deep"  was  performed  at  Tavistock 
House,  and  again  the  ever-willing  Stanfield  was  pressed  into 
the  service.  "The  priceless  help  of  Stanfield  had  again  been 
secured,"  says  Forster,  "and  I  remember  finding  him  one 
day  at  Tavistock  House  in  the  act  of  upsetting  some 
elaborate  arrangements  by  Dickens,  with  a  proscenium 
before  him  made  up  of  chairs,  and  the  scenery  planned  out 
with  walking-sticks."  The  play-bill  records,  "The  scenery 
and  scenic  effects  of  the  second  and  third  acts,  by  Mr.  Stan- 
field, R.A.,  assisted  by  Mr.  Danson.  The  act-drop,  also  by 
Mr.  Stanfield,  R.A."  Afterwards,  Dickens  had  the  Light- 
house drop-scene  framed,  and  "The  Frozen  Deep"  drop- 
scene  divided  into  two  subjects — a  British  man-of-war,  and 
an  Arctic  sea — and,  says  Forster,  "the  school-room  that 
had  been  the  theatre  was  now  hung  with  sea-pieces  by  a 
great  painter  of  the  sea.  To  believe  them  to  have  been  but 
the  amusement  of  a  few  mornings  was  difficult  indeed.  Seen 
from  the  due  distance  there  was  nothing  wanting  to  the 
most  masterly  and  elaborate  art." 

Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  Stanfield  had  much  anxiety 
and  illness,  and  Dickens  and  Forster  gave  him  ample  evi- 


116  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

dence  of  the  sincerity  of  their  friendship.  He  lived  at  Hamp- 
stead,  and  it  was  the  dehght  of  his  two  friends  to  tramp 
across  the  Heath  and  pay  him  surprise  visits  to  cheer  him 
up.  Writing  to  Macready  in  1863,  Dickens  says:  "Stan- 
field  was  very  ill  for  some  months,  then  suddenly  picked  up, 
and  is  really  rosy  and  jovial  again.  Going  to  see  him  when 
he  was  very  despondent,  I  told  him  the  story  of  Fletcher's 
piece"  (then  in  rehearsal)  "with  appropriate  action;  fight- 
ing a  duel  with  the  washing-stand,  defying  the  bedstead,  and 
saving  the  life  of  the  sofa-cushions.  This  so  kindled  his  old 
theatrical  ardour,  that  I  think  he  turned  the  corner  on  the 
spot." 

The  painter  died  in  May  1867.  Just  a  month  before  he 
had  received  his  last  letter  from  Dickens — a  letter  breath- 
ing affection  in  every  line.  On  his  death-bed  this  good  man 
had  performed  an  act  which  was  in  keeping  with  his  whole 
life.  Dickens  and  Mark  Lemon  had  quarrelled  some  years 
previously,  and  had  not  spoken  since.  With  hfe  nearing  its 
close,  the  true-hearted  Stanfield  pleaded  with  Dickens  to 
resume  his  friendship  with  "Uncle  Mark."  Dickens  was  the 
last  man  with  whom  such  an  appeal  could  be  in  vain,  and 
the  two  men  once  more  clasped  hands  over  "noble  old 
Stanny's"  open  grave. 

Wlien  at  last  the  end  came,  Dickens,  in  All  the  Year 
Round,  paid  his  final  tribute: 

".  .  .  The  writer  of  these  words  had  been  his  friend 
for  thirty  years ;  and  when,  a  short  week  or  two  before 
his  death,  he  laid  that  once  so  skillful  hand  upon  the 
writer's  breast,  and  told  him  they  would  meet  again, 
*but  not  here,'  the  thoughts  of  the  latter  turned,  for  the 
time,  so  little  to  his  noble  genius,  and  so  much  to  his 
noble  nature ! 

"He  was  the  soul  of  frankness,  generosity,  and  sim- 
plicity. The  most  genial,  the  most  affectionate,  the 
most  loving,  and  the  most  lovable  of  men.   .   .  . 

*'No  Artist  can  ever  have  stood  by  his  art  with  a 
quieter  dignity  than  he  always  did.  Nothing  would 
have  induced  him  to  lay  it  at  the  feet  of  any  human 
creature.  To  fawn,  or  to  toady,  or  to  do  undeserved 
homage  to  any  one,  was  an  absolute  Impossibility  with 


"NOBLE  OLD  STANNY"  117 

him.  And  yet  his  character  was  so  nicely  balanced 
that  he  was  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  be  suspected  of 
self-assertion,  and  his  modesty  was  one  of  his  most 
special  qualities. 

"He  was  a  charitable,  religious,  gentle,  truly  good 
man.  A  genuine  man,  incapable  of  pretence  or  of  con- 
cealment. .  .  .  There  is  no  smile  that  the  writer  can 
recall,  like  his ;  no  manner  so  naturally  confiding  and 
so  cheerfully  engaging.  When  the  writer  saw  him  for 
the  last  time  on  earth,  the  smile  and  tlie  manner  shone 
out  once  through  the  weakness,  still:  the  bright  un- 
changing Soul  within  the  altered  face  and  form. 

"Gone!  And  many  and  many  a  dear  old  day  gone 
with  him!  But  their  memories  remain  and  his  memory 
will  not  soon  fade  out,  for  he  set  his  mark  upon  the 
restless  waters,  and  his  fame  will  long  be  sounded  in 
the  roar  of  the  sea." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FKAXCIS    JEFFREY 

The  friendsliip  with  Lord  Jeffrey  was  formed  in  the  early 
Devonshire  Terrace  days.  It  was  one  of  the  most  striking 
friendships  of  the  novehst's  life.  They  could  not  meet  often, 
of  course,  and  when  they  did  meet,  Jeffre}^  could  take  no 
part  in  the  almost  daily  ridings  or  in  the  frequent  social 
entertainments,  for  he  was  an  old  man.  But  between  the 
two  men  there  sprang  up  a  truly  extraordinary  aifection. 
"I  believe  I  have  lost  as  affectionate  a  friend  as  I  ever  had, 
or  shall  have,  in  this  world,"  wrote  Dickens  when  Jeffrey 
died  in  1850.  It  was  true.  They  met  in  IS^l  and  cemented 
a  friendship  which  had  already  commenced  "autograph- 
ically,"  and  which  must  have  meant  very  much  to  Dickens. 
Jeffrey  was  born  in  1773,  so  that  he  was  sixty-eight  ^^ears 
old  when  he  first  met  Dickens,  who  had  not  yet  completed 
his  thirtieth  year,  and  his  attitude  towards  the  young  novel- 
ist was  almost  that  of  a  fond  parent  towards  a  brilliant  son. 
His  kindly  criticism  and  his  whole-hearted  encouragement 
must  have  been  invaluable  to  the  young  writer.  Indeed,  they 
must  have  meant  more  to  him  than  he  ever  knew,  or  the  world 
can  ever  estimate. 

It  is  true  that  in  respect  of  one  of  Jeffrey's  criticisms  (of 
some  parts  of  Domhey  and  Son)  we  find  Dickens  writing  to 
Forster:  "I  do  not  at  heart,  however,  lay  much  real  stress 
on  his  opinion,  though  one  is  naturally  proud  of  awakening 
such  sincere  interest  in  the  breast  of  an  old  man  who  has  so 
long  worn  the  blue  and  yelloAv";  none  the  less  he  could  not 
ignore  the  opinions  of  such  a  man,  and  even  though  uncon- 
sciously, they  cannot  have  failed  to  influence  his  work. 
Indeed,  as  we  shall  see  later,  Jeffrey  did  influence  the  plot 
of  this  very  book  in  a  very  important  particular. 

But,  in  those  early  days,  when  Boz  had  just  burst  from 
obscurity  into  world-wide  fame:  just  realising  his  strength 
118 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY  119 

as  he  was,  the  friendship  and  advice  of  this  famous  editor 
and  critic  could  not  but  help  to  mould  him,  and  to  direct  his 
genius  in  ways  where  it  could  wield  its  most  potent  influence. 
Jeffrey  loved  Dickens  with  a  love  that  is  rare  among  men. 
The  old  man's  heart  warmed  to  the  creator  of  Little  Nell 
and  Smike  as  it  had  warmed  to  few  men  in  his  long  life,  and 
throughout  his  letters  to  Dickens  there  is  a  note  of  affec- 
tionate interest  that  is  most  touching.  Their  first  meeting 
was  in  April  1841,  and  in  the  following  month,  Jeffrey  wrote 
to  Lord  Cockbum  from  London: 

"I  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  and  above  all,  of 

Charles  Dickens,  with  whom  I  have  struck  up  what  I 
mean  to  be  an  eternal  and  intimate  friendship.  He 
lives  very  near  to  us,  and  I  often  run  over  and  sit  an 
hour  tete-a-tete,  or  take  a  long  walk  in  the  park  with 
him — the  only  way  really  to  know  or  be  known  by  either 
man  or  woman.  Taken  in  this  way  I  think  him  very 
amiable  and  agreeable.  In  mixed  company,  where  he 
is  now  much  sought  after,  he  is  rather  reserved.  He 
has  dined  here,  and  we  with  him,  at  rather  too  sump- 
tuous a  dinner  for  a  man  with  a  family,  and  only 
beginning  to  be  rich,  though  selling  44,000  copies  of  his 
weekly  issues."  ^ 

What  strikes  one  as  somewhat  astonishing,  is  the  fact  that 
though  the  Clock  dinner  took  place  on  April  10th,  while 
Jeffrey  was  in  London,  he  was  not  of  the  company,  for 
though  this  was  his  first  meeting  with  Dickens,  they  had 
corresponded  previously.  A  month  before,  Dickens  had 
written  to  Forster  about  Jeffrey  in  quite  familiar  terms,  re- 
ferring to  a  letter  that  had  obviously  come  from  that  great 
man  himself:  "I  had  a  letter  from  Edinburgh  this  morning, 
announcing  that  Jeffrey's  visit  will  be  the  week  after  next; 
telling  me  that  he  drives  about  Edinburgh,  declaring  there 
has  been  'nothing  so  good  as  Nell  since  Cordelia,'  which  he 
writes  also  to  all  manner  of  people;  and  informing  me  of  a 
desire  in  that  romantic  town  to  give  me  greeting  and  wel- 
come." We  have  also  the  well-known  fact  that  Jeffrey 
pleaded  earnestly  with  Dickens  to  allow  Little  NeU  to  live. 
» Master  Humphrey's  Clock. 


120  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

That  must  have  been  before  his  visit  to  London  in  April 
1841,  for  Nell  was  dead  then. 

We  are  told  that  in  this  visit  Jeffrey  was  welcomed  with 
many  feasts  and  entertainments  of  which  he  partook  very 
sparingly.  Before  he  returned  to  Edinburgh,  he  had  ex- 
tracted a  promise  from  Dickens  to  pay  a  visit  to  Scotland 
in  the  ensuing  summer.  That  visit  duly  took  place.  The 
novelist  and  his  wife  arrived  at  the  Royal  Hotel,  Edinburgh, 
on  June  22nd,  and  he  had,  as  Forster  puts  it,  his  "first 
practical  experience  of  the  honours  his  fame  had  won  for 
him."  During  his  stay  in  Scotland,  he  naturally  saw  much 
of  his  friend,  and  visited  him  several  times  at  Craig-crook. 

Records  of  meetings  between  the  two  men  after  this  are 
lamentably  scarce,  but  we  do  know,  that  henceforth  Jeffrey 
visited  Dickens  in  London  about  every  spring,  and  that  as 
the  years  passed  the  friendship  deepened.  Dickens  paid 
another  visit  to  Scotland  in  December  1847,  for  the  purpose 
of  opening  the  Glasgow  Athenaeum,  and,  of  course,  took  in 
Edinburgh  going  and  returning  in  order  to  spend  some  time 
with  Jeffrey.  During  this  visit  an  incident  occurred  which 
may  be  mentioned  in  this  place.  On  the  first  day  of  the 
new  year — 1848 — the  novelist  wrote  to  Forster:  "Jeffrey, 
who  is  obliged  to  hold  a  kind  of  morning  court  in  his  own 
study  during  the  holidays,  came  up  here  yesterday  in  great 
consternation,  to  tell  me  that  a  person  had  been  to  make 
and  sign  a  declaration  of  bankruptcy,  and  that  on  looking 
at  the  signature  he  saw  it  was  Sheridan  James  Knowles." 
With  that  promptness  that  characterised  him  in  everything 
he  ever  did,  he  decided  to  do  something  to  assist  this  famous 
playwright.  The  help  of  friends  was  enlisted,  and  as  a  result, 
in  the  following  May,  performances  of  "The  Merry  Wives 
of  Windsor"  and  "Love,  Law  and  Ph^^sick"  were  given  in 
London,  Birmingham,  Manchester,  Liverpool,  Glasgow  and 
Edinburgh  with  a  view  of  endowing  a  curatorship  of  Shake- 
speare's house  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  to  be  held  by  Knowles. 
The  endowment  was  abandoned  upon  the  town  of  Stratford 
taking  charge  of  the  house,  but  the  proceeds  of  the  perform- 
ances, which  amounted  to  £2551,  went  to  the  object  really 
desired. 

Dickens  paid  Jeffrey  the  two  greatest  compliments  that 
were  in  his  power  to  pay.     He  dedicated  one  of  his  books  to 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY  121 

him,  and  he  invited  him  to  act  as  a  godfathei*  to  one  of  his 
children.  The  book  was  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth,  the 
dedication  reading:  "To  Lord  Jeffrey,  with  the  affection  and 
attachment  of  his  friend,  Charles  Dickens."  The  child  to 
whom  Jeffrey  became  godfather  was  the  third  son,  named,  of 
course,  Francis  Jeft'rey,  who  was  born  on  January  15,  ISrii, 
and  became  known  in  the  family  circle  as  "Chickenstalker." 
This  was  the  old  man's  reply  to  his  friend's  invitation  to  him 
to  act  as  the  boy's  godfather : 

"...  about  that  most  flattering  wish,  or,  more  prob- 
ably, passing  fancy,  of  that  dear  Kate  of  yours,  to 
associate  my  name  with  yours  over  the  baptismal  font 
of  your  new-come  boy.  My  first  impression  was  that 
it  was  a  mere  piece  of  kind  badinage  of  hers  (or  perhaps 
your  own)  and  not  meant  to  be  seriously  taken,  and  con- 
sequently that  it  would  be  foolish  to  take  any  notice 
of  it.  But  it  has  since  occurred  to  me,  that  if  you  had 
really  dedicated  so  great  an  honour  for  me,  you  would 
naturally  think  it  strange  that  I  did  not  in  some  way 
acknowledge  it,  and  express  the  deep  sense  I  should 
certainly  have  of  such  an  act  of  kindness.  And  so  I 
write  now  to  say,  in  all  fulness  and  simplicity  of  heart, 
that,  if  such  a  thing  is  indeed  in  your  contemplation, 
it  would  be  more  flattering  and  agreeable  to  me  than 
most  things  that  have  befallen  me  in  this  mortal  pil- 
grimage; while  if  it  was  but  the  sportful  expression 
of  a  happy  and  confiding  playfulness  I  shall  still  feel 
grateful  for  the  communication,  and  return  you  a  smile 
as  cordial  as  your  own,  and  with  full  permission  to  both 
of  you  to  smile  at  the  simplicity  which  could  not  dis- 
tinguish jest  from  earnest." 

What  Jeffrey  thought  of  Dickens's  genius  and  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  that  genius,  is  well  known.  Not  the  wildest  enthusiast 
that  ever  lived  was  more  extravagant  in  his  appreciation  of 
the  novels  than  was  this  great  critic.  But  for  the  fact  that 
most  of  his  letters  to  Dickens  are  preserved,  it  would  be  almost 
incredible  that  the  man  who  was  so  feared  as  a  critic  should 
have  held  Boz  in  such  high  estimation,  and  should  have  en- 
thused so   extravagantly   over  his   writings.      The  truth   is 


122  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

that  he  saw  in  those  writings  a  new  humanising  force.  It 
was  not  Dickens  the  great  humourist  over  whom  he  was  so 
enthusiastic;  but  Dickens  the  tender-hearted,  Dickens  the 
lover  of  little  children,  Dickens  the  champion  of  the  down- 
trodden and  suffering.  It  was  Smike  who  first  touched  his 
heart,  and  it  was  Nell  who  completed  the  conquest.  How 
he  wept  over  Nell,  and  how  he  pleaded  that  she  might  live, 
all  the  world  knows,  but  I  shall  be  forgiven  for  introducing 
one  authenticated  anecdote. 

Mrs.  Henry  Siddons,  a  neighbour  and  intimate  of  Jef- 
frey's, opened  his  library  door  one  day,  and  saw  the  old  man 
sitting  in  his  chair,  with  his  head  on  the  table,  and  appar- 
ently in  deep  grief.  She  was  in  the  act  of  retiring  silently, 
when  he  looked  up,  and  beckoned  her  to  remain.  She  saw 
that  his  eyes  were  suffused  with  tears.  "Don't  go,  my  dear 
friend,"  he  said,  "I  shall  be  all  right  again  in  another 
minute."  "I  had  no  idea  that  you  had  had  an}^  bad  news  or 
cause  for  grief,"  said  the  lady,  "or  I  would  not  have  come. 
Is  any  one  dead?"  "Yes,  indeed,"  was  the  reply.  "I'm  a 
great  goose  to  have  given  way  so ;  but  I  could  not  help  it. 
You'll  be  sorry  to  hear  that  little  Nelly,  Boz's  httle  Nelly, 
is  dead." 

His  love  for  this  character  never  faded,  and  his  references 
to  her  in  his  letters  are  frequent.  To  Mrs.  Rutherford,  for 
instance,  in  1842,  he  wrote:  "  .  .  .1  am  verging  with  un- 
reasonable celerity  to  decay,  and  I  am  already  in  a  condition 
which  will  require  all  the  indulgence  I  now  beseech  of  you. 
So  you  must  be  a  good  girl  and  play  the  Nelly  to  me  now 
and  then,  keeping  me  out  of  scrapes,  and  cheering  my  failing 
spirit  with  the  spectacle  of  your  brightness  and  sustaining 
it  by  the  strength  of  your  affection." 

It  would  be  possible  to  fill  many  pages  with  extracts  from 
Jeffrey's  letters  to  Dickens  proving  how  truly  he  appreciated 
his  friend's  writings,  but  I  will  confine  myself  to  just  one  or 
two.     In  regard  to  Ajnerican  Notes  he  wrote: 

"Your  account  of  the  silent  or  solitary  imprisonment 
system  is  as  pathetic  and  powerful  a  piece  of  writing 
as  I  have  ever  seen;  and  3^our  sweet  airy  little  snatch, 
of  the  happy  little  woman  taking  her  new  babe  home 
to   her   young  husband,    and   your   manly    and   feeling 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY  123 

appeal  on  behalf  of  the  poor  Irish  (or  rather  of  the 
affectionate  poor  of  all  races  and  tongues),  who  are 
patient  and  tender  to  their  children  under  circumstances 
which  would  make  half  the  exemplary  parents  among 
the  rich,  monsters  of  selfishment  and  discontent,  remind 
us  that  we  have  still  among  us  the  creator  of  Nelly,  and 
Smike,  and  the  schoolmaster,  and  his  dying  pupil,  etc., 
and  must  continue  to  win  for  you  still  more  of  that 
homage  of  the  heart,  that  love  and  esteem  of  the  just 
and  good,  which,  though  it  sJiould  never  be  disjoined 
from  them,  I  think  you  must  already  feel  to  be  better 
than  fortune  or  fame." 

Then  there  is  the  famous  letter  about  the  Carol.    No  one 
will  wish  to  quarrel  with  me  for  quoting  that: 

"Blessings  on  your  kind  heart,  my  dear  Dickens !  and 
may  it  always  be  as  light  and  full  as  it  is  kind  and  a 
fountain  of  kindness  to  all  within  reach  of  its  beatings ! 
,We  are  all  charmed  with  your  Carol,  chiefly,  I  think, 
for  the  genuine  goodness  which  breathes  all  through  it, 
and  is  the  true  inspiring  angel  by  which  its  genius  has 
been  awakened.  The  whole  scene  of  the  Cratchits  is  like 
the  dream  of  a  beneficent  angel,  in  spite  of  its  broad 
reality,  and  little  Tiny  Tim,  in  life  and  death,  almost 
as  sweet  and  as  touching  as  Nelly.  And  then  the  school- 
day  scene,  with  that  large-hearted  delicate  sister,  and 
her  true  inheritor,  with  his  gall-lacking  liver,  and  milk 
of  human  kindness  for  blood,  and  yet  all  so  natural,  and 
so  humbly  and  serenely  happy!  Well,  you  should  be 
happy  yourself,  for  you  may  be  sure  you  have  done 
more  good,  and  not  only  fostered  more  kindly  feelings, 
but  prompted  more  positive  acts  of  beneficence  by  this 
little  publication  than  can  be  traced  to  all  the  pulpits 
and  confessionals  in  Christendom,  since  Christmas 
1842." 

This  is  what  he  wrote  on  the  receipt  of  a  copy  of  The 
Chimes : 

^'Blessings  on  your  kind  heart,  my  dearest  Dickens, 
for  that,  after  all,  is  your  great  talisman,  and  the  gift 


124  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

for  which  you  will  be  not  only  most  loved,  but  longest 
remembered,  your  kind  and  courageous  advocacy  of  the 
rights  of  the  poor — your  generous  assertion  and  touch- 
ing displays  of  their  virtues,  and  the  delicacy  as  well 
as  the  warmth  of  their  affections,  have  done  more  to 
soothe  desponding  worth — to  waken  sleeping  (almost 
dead)  humanities — and  to  shame  even  selfish  brutality, 
than  all  the  other  writings  of  the  age,  and  make  it, 
and  all  that  are  to  come  after,  your  debtors. 

"Well,  you  will  understand  from  this  (though  it  was 
all  true  before)  that  the  music  of  your  Chimes  has 
reached  me,  and  resounded  through  my  heart,  and  that 
I  thank  you  with  all  that  is  left  of  it.  .    .    . 

"The  aldermen  and  justices,  friends  and  fathers,  etc., 
and,  in  short,  all  the  tribe  of  selfishness  and  cowardice 
and  cant,  will  hate  you  in  their  hearts,  and  cavil  when 
they  can;  will  accuse  you  of  wicked  exaggeration  and 
excitement  to  discontent,  and  what  they  pleasantly  call 
disaffection !  But  never  mind — the  good  and  the  brave 
are  with  you,  and  the  truth  also,  and  in  that  sign  you 
will  continue.'* 

And  then,  with  reference  to  the  fifth  number  of  Dombey — 
the  number  containing  the  death  of  little  Paul: 

"Oh,  my  dear,  dear  Dickens!  What  a  No.  6  you 
have  now  given  us !  I  have  so  cried  and  sobbed  over  it 
last  night,  and  again  this  morning;  and  felt  my  heart 
purified  by  those  tears,  and  blessed  and  loved  you  for 
making  me  shed  them;  and  I  never  can  bless  and  love 
you  enough.  Since  that  divine  Nelly  was  found  dead 
on  her  humble  couch,  beneath  the  snow  and  ivy,  there 
has  been  nothing  like  the  actual  dying  of  that  sweet 
Paul,  in  the  summer  sunshine  of  that  lofty  room.  And 
the  long  vista  that  leads  us  so  gently  and  sadly,  and 
yet  so  gracefully  and  winningly,  to  that  plain  consum- 
mation! Every  trait  so  true  and  so  touching,  and  yet 
lightened  by  that  fearless  innocence  which  goes  playfully 
to  the  brink  of  the  grave,  and  that  pure  affection  which 
bears  the  unstained  spirit,  on  its  soft  and  lambent  flash, 
at  once  to  its  source  in  eternity.     In  reading  of  these 


Francis  Jeffrey 


I'RUFESsou  John  Wilson 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY  125 

delightful  children,  liow  deeply  do  we  feel  that  *of  such 
IS  tlie  kmgdom  of  heaven';  and  how  asliamed  of  the  con- 
taminations which  our  manJiood  has  received  from  the 
contact  of  earth,  and  wonder  how  you  should  have  been 
admitted  into  that  pure  communion,  and  so  'presumed, 
an  earthly  guest,  and  drawn  empyreal  air,'  though  for 
our  benefit  and  instruction." 

As  I  have  said,  he  did  not  value  Dickens's  humour  and 
tragic  power  so  much.     As  witness  his  comment  on  some  of 

vouXnlfr  K^^''^^''  ^^  ^"'^^^^•-  "I  ^^  P^°^d  that 
you  should  thus  show  us  new  views  of  your  genius-but  I 
shaU  always  love  its  gentler  magic  the  most;  and  never  leave 
^.elly  and  Paul  and  Florence  for  Edith.  .  .  .  I  am  prepared, 
too,  m  some  degree,  for  being  softened  towards  Dombey-  for 
yonjiave  made  me  feel  sincere  pity  for  Miss  Tox;  though, 

hateful  and  heartless  creature  than  herself."  The  last  letter 
which  Dickens  ever  received  from  him  referred  to  some  of  the 

™r  "Jl^^^'fr  ''L^'^'^f  Copperfidd.  He  had  not  taken 
veiy  kindly  to  the  Micawbers :  "Uriah  is  too  disgusting;  and 
I  confess  I  should  have  been  contented  to  have  heard  no  more 
ot  the  Micawbers." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Jeffrey  influenced  the  plot  of 
Dombey  and  Son  m  one  very  important  point.     He  raised 

thLT^ >n  Z  It"  *^f  r'"^  "'^^^^  ^°*  ^^"^'^  ^3^  «ther  means 
than  Edith  s  death,  and  bnnging  with  it  a  more  bitter  humil- 
iation for  her  destroyer.  When  Edith  arranged  to  flee  with 
Carker,  Dickens  meant  her  to  be  what  she  seemed  to  be. 
Jettrey  however,  positively  refused  to  believe  that  she  was 
Carker  s  mistress,  and  the  result  was  that  Dickens  decided 
upon  an  alteration,  and  gave  us  that  scene  of  her  undeceivincr 
the  villam  and  "giving  him  to  know  that  she  never  meant 
that." 

I  have  said  that  Jeffrey  always  treated  Dickens  more  as 
a  much-loved  son  than  as  a  friend.  He  himself  described  his 
relationship  to  the  novelist  as  that  of  an  elder  brother  Not 
only  did  he  encourage  Boz  with  whole-hearted  praise,  but  he 
sought  his  confidence  in  regard  to  more  intimate  and  personal 
affairs  For  instance,  in  February  1844,  we  read  in  one  of 
his  letters:  "I  shall  not  be  satisfied  if  the  profits  of  the  Carol 


126  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

do  not  ultimately  come  up  to  my  estimate.  I  want  amazingly 
to  see  you  rich,  and  independent  of  all  irksome  exertions. 
.  .  .  And  so,  God  be  with  you."  Then  in  1847  we  find  him 
writing : 

"I  certainly  did  not  mean  to  ask  you  for  the  full  and 
clear,  if  not  every  way  satisfactory  statement  you  have 
trusted  me  with.  But  I  do  feel  the  full  value  of  that 
confidence,  and  wish  I  had  any  better  return  to  make 
to  it  than  mere  thanks,  and  idle,  because  general,  advice. 
I  am  rather  disappointed,  I  must  own,  at  finding  your 
embankment  still  so  small.  But  it  is  a  great  thing  to 
have  made  a  beginning,  and  laid  a  foundation ;  and  you 
are  young  enough  to  reckon  on  living  many  years  under 
the  proud  roof  of  the  completed  structure,  which  even 
I  expect  to  see  ascending  in  its  splendour.  But  when 
I  consider  that  the  public  has,  upon  a  moderate  com- 
putation, paid  at  least  £100,000  for  your  works  (and 
had  a  good  bargain  too  at  the  money),  it  is  rather  pro- 
voking to  think  that  the  author  should  not  have  —  in 

bank,  and  have  never  received,  I  suspect,  above  . 

There  must  have  been  some  mismanagement,  I  think,  as 
well  as  ill-luck,  to  have  occasioned  this  result — not  ex- 
travagance on  your  part,  my  dear  Dickens — nor  even 
excessive  beneficence — but  improvident  arrangements 
with  publishers — and  too  careless  a  control  of  their  pro- 
ceedings. .  .  .  I  am  as  far  as  possible  from  grudging 
you  the  elegances  and  indulgences  which  are  suitable  to 
your  tasteful  and  liberal  nature,  and  which  you  have 
so  fully  earned ;  and  should  indeed  be  grieved  not  to  see 
you  surrounded,  and  your  children  growing  up,  in  the 
midst  of  the  refinements  which  not  only  gratify  the 
relishes,  but  improve  the  capacities,  of  a  cultivated  mind. 
All  I  venture  to  press  on  you  is  the  infinite  importance 
and  unspeakable  comfort  of  an  achieved  and  secure  in- 
dependence; taking  away  all  anxiety  about  decay  of 
health  or  mental  alacrity,  or  even  that  impatience  of 
task  work  which  is  apt  to  steal  upon  free  spirits  who 
would  work  harder  and  better  if  redeemed  from  the  yoke 
of  necessity.  But  this  is  twaddle  enough,  and  must  be 
charitably  set  down  to  the  score  of  my  paternal  anxiety 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY  U7 

and  senile  caution.  .  .  .  And  so  God  bless  you  and  your 
dear  Kate,  and  my  charming  bo}^,  and  all  his  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  all  whom  you  love,  and  love  you — with 
you,  or  at  a  distance.  .  .  .  Give  my  love  to  Kate,  and 
do  not  let  her  forget  me.  Name  me,  too,  sometimes  to 
the  boy." 

And  here,  in  the  same  year,  is  an  intimate  note  which 
Dickens  was  not  the  sort  of  man  to  tolerate  from  anybody: 

"Well,  but  how  have  you  been?  And  how  is  the  poor 
child  who  was  so  cruelly  hustled  against  the  portals  of 
life  at  his  entry  ?  And  his  dear  mother  ?  And  my  bright 
boy?  And  all  the  rest  of  the  happy  circle?  .  .  .  And 
how  does  the  People's  Edition  prosper?  And  how  does 
the  embankment  proceed?  And  do  you  begin  to  feel 
the  germs  of  a  prudent  avarice  and  anticipated  pride  of 
purse  working  themselves  into  your  breast?  And  whom 
do  you  mostly  live  with,  or  wish  to  live  with?  And 
among  whom,  and  in  what  condition,  do  you  most  aspire 
to  die?  Though  I  am  not  exactly  your  father  confessor, 
just  know  I  always  put  you  through  your  Catechism, 
and  I  do  expect  and  require  an  answer  to  all  these 
interrogatives.  ...  So  God  bless  you !  my  dear  Dickens ; 
and  with  truest  love  to  my  true-hearted  Kate,  and  all 
true  Dickenses,  believe  me,  always,  ever  and  ever  yours." 

Dickens,  in  1848,  evidently  became  remiss,  for  here  is  an 
extract  from  a  letter  written  by  Jeffrey  in  November: 

"My  dear  Dickens, 

"We  must  not  grow  quite  out  of  acquaintance, 
if  you  please!  You  have  put  my  name  alongside  of 
your  own,  on  a  memorable  little  page,  and  have  solemnly 
united  them  again  on  the  head  of  a  child,  wlio  will  live, 
I  hope,  neither  to  discredit  the  one,  nor  to  be  ashamed 
of  the  other.  And  so,  for  the  sake  even  of  decent  con- 
sistency, you  must  really  take  a  little  notice  of  me  now 
and  then,  and  let  me  have  some  account,  as  of  old,  of 
your  health  and  happiness — of  your  worldly  affairs,  and 
your  spiritual  hopes  and  experiences — of  your  literary 


128  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

projects  and  domestic  felicities — your  nocturnal  walks 
and  dramatic  recreations — of  the  sale  of  cheap  copies, 
and  the  conception  of  bright  originals — of  your  wife  and 
children;  in  short,  your  autumn  migrations  and  winter 
home — of  our  last  parting,  which  was  more  hurried  than 
usual,  and  our  next  meeting,  which,  alas,  I  feel  to  be 
more  and  more  uncertain." 

Assuredly  it  was  something  to  have  inspired  such  feelings 
of  friendship  in  such  a  man! 

Jeffrey  died  in  January  1850.  Less  than  a  year  before 
he  had  written  to  his  much-loved  friend: 

"My  ever  dear  Dickens, 

"I  have  been  very  near  dead;  and  am  by  no 
means  sure  that  I  shall  ever  recover  from  the  malady 
which  has  confined  me  mostly  to  bed  for  the  last  five 
weeks,  and  which  has  only,  within  the  last  three  days, 
allowed  me  to  leave  my  room  for  a  few  hours  in  the 
morning.  But  I  must  tell  you  that,  living  or  dying,  I 
retain  for  you,  unabated  and  unimpaired,  the  same  cor- 
dial feelings  of  love,  gratitude  and  admiration,  which 
have  been  part  of  my  nature,  and  no  small  part  of  my 
pride  and  happiness,  for  the  last  twenty  years.^  .  .  . 
I  am  better,  however,  within  these  last  days ;  and  hope 
still  to  see  your  bright  eye,  and  clasp  your  open  hand, 
once  more  at  least  before  the  hour  of  final  separation. 
In  the  meantime,  you  will  be  glad,  though  I  hope  not 
surprised,  to  hear  that  I  have  no  acute  suffering,  no 
disturbing  apprehensions  or  low  spirits ;  but  possess 
myself  in  a  fitting,  and  indeed  cheerful  tranquillity,  with- 
out impatience,  or  any  unseemly  anxiety  as  to  the  issue 
I  am  appointed  to  abide." 

Of  this  letter,  Dickens  wrote  to  Forster:  "I  had  a  letter 
from  Jeffrey  yesterday  morning,  just  as  I  was  going  to  write 
to  him.  He  has  evidently  been  very  ill,  and  I  begin  to  have 
fears  for  his  recovery.  It  is  a  very  pathetic  letter,  as  to  his 
state  of  mind ;  but  only  in  a  tranquil  contemplation  of  death, 

» A  great  exaggeration,  of  course. 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY  H9 

which  I  think  very  noble."  Less  than  three  weeks  before  he 
died,  the  old  man  wrote  his  last  letter  to  Dickens,  and  in  that 
he  struck  an  equally  noble  and  beautiful  note: 

"We  are  all  tolerably  well  here,  I  thank  you;  Mrs. 
Jeffrey,  I  am  happy  to  say,  has  been  really  quite  well 
for  many  months,  and,  in  fact,  by  much  the  most  robust 
of  the  two.  My  fairy  grandchild,  too,  is  bright  and 
radiant  through  all  the  glooms  of  winter  and  age,  and 
fills  the  house  with  sunshine  and  music.  I  am  old  and 
vulnerable,  but  still  able  for  my  work,  and  not  a  bit 
morose  or  querulous ;  'And  by  the  mass  the  heart  is  in 
the  trim.'  I  love  all  that  is  lovable,  and  can  respond 
to  love  as  intensely  as  in  youth,  and  hope  to  die  before 
that  capacity  forsakes  me." 

The  death  of  this  earnest  admirer  and  true  friend  was, 
Forster  tells  us,  a  great  sorrow  to  Dickens.  He  wrote  to 
Forster:  "Poor  dear  Jeffrey!  I  bought  a  'Times'  at  the 
station  yesterday  morning,  and  was  so  stunned  by  the  an- 
nouncement, that  I  felt  it  in  that  wounded  part  of  me,  almost 
directly;  and  the  bad  symptoms  (modified)  returned  within 
a  few  hours.  ...  I  sent  him  proof-sheets  of  the  number 
only  last  Wednesday.  I  say  nothing  of  his  wonderful  abili- 
ties and  great  career,  but  he  was  a  most  affectionate  friend 
to  me;  and  though  no  man  could  wish  to  live  and  die  more 
happily,  so  old  in  years  and  yet  so  young  in  faculties  and 
sympathies,  I  am  very,  very  deeply  grieved  for  his  loss." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

SIB    DAVID    WILKIE 


Sir  David  Wilkie,  to  whose  memory  Dickens  proposed  a 
toast  at  the  Edinburgh  banquet  in  1841,  was  a  very  intimate 
friend  in  1839  and  1840,  and  was  one  of  those  with  whom 
in  those  years  there  were  "frequent  social  entertamments. 
But  towards  the  end  of  the  latter  year  he  went  abroad  ma 
vain  quest  of  health,  and  died  off  Gibraltar  m  June  1841 
In  that  month  Dickens  paid  his  first  visit  to  Edinburgh  and 
was  entertained  at  a  great  public  dinner,  "and,''  says  Forster, 
"it  was  wliile  we  were  all  regretting  Wilkie's  absence  abroad, 
and  Dickens  with  warrantable  pride  was  saymg  how  surely 
the  great  painter  would  have  gone  to  this  dinner,  that  the 
shock  of  his  sudden  death  came,  and  there  was    eft  but  the 
sorrowful  satisfaction  of  honouring  his  memory        I>ickens 
we  are  told,  refused  to  believe  the  sad  news  at  first,  and 
wrote  to  Forster:  "My  heart  assures  me  Wilkie  hveth.    He 
is  the  sort  of  man  who  wiU  be  very  old  when  he  dies        But 
the  news  was  true,  and  at  the  dinner  on  June  15,  Dickens 
had  to  propose  the  memory  of  his  friend : 

"One  of  the  gifted  of  the  earth  has  passed  away,  as 
it  were,  yesterday;  one  who  was  devoted  to  his  art,  and 
his  art  was  nature-I  mean  David  Wilkie.  He  was  one 
who  made  the  cottage  hearth  a  graceful  th"ig— of  whom 
it  might  truly  be  said  that  he  found  'books  m  the  run- 
ning brooks,'  and  who  has  left  in  all  he  did  some  breath- 
ing of  the  air  wliich  stirs  the  heather.  But  however 
desirous  to  enlarge  on  his  genius  as  an  artist,  I  would 
rather  speak  of  him  now  as  a  friend  who  has  gone  from 
amongst  us.  There  is  his  deserted  studio--the  empty 
easel  lying  idly  by— the  unfinished  picture  with  its  lace 
turned  to  the  waU,  and  there  is  that  bereaved  sister, 
130 


SIR  DAVID  WILKIE  131 

who  loved  him  with  an  affection  death  cannot  quench. 
He  has  left  a  name  in  fame  clear  as  the  bright  sky ;  he 
has  filled  our  minds  with  memories  pure  as  the  blue  waves 
which  roll  over  him.  Let  us  hope  that  she  who  more 
than  all  others  mourns  his  loss,  may  learn  to  reflect  that 
he  died  in  the  fulness  of  his  fame,  before  age  or  sickness 
had  dimmed  his  powers — that  she  may  yet  associate  with 
feelings  as  calm  and  pleasant  as  we  do  now  the  memory 
of  Wnkie." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

SOME    SCOTCH    FRIENDS 

During  that  memorable  visit  to  Scotland  in  1841  Dickens 
met  most  of  the  famous  men  in  Edinburgh,  and  formed  with 
one  or  two  of  them  pleasant  acquaintancesliips  which  lasted 
for  some  years.  First  of  all  there  was  John  Wilson,  "Chris- 
topher North,"  who  presided  at  the  great  dinner  in  Jeffrey's 
absence  through  ill  health.  They  were  introduced  by  Jef- 
frey, and  thus  Dickens  describes  him  in  a  letter  to  Forster. 
"A  bright,  clear-complexioned,  mountain-looking  fellow,  he 
looks  as  though  he  had  just  come  down  from  the  Higlilands 
and  had  never  in  his  life  taken  pen  in  hand.  .  .  .  He  is  a 
great  fellow  to  look  at  and  talk  to;  and  if  you  could  divert 
your  mind  of  the  actual  Scott,  is  just  the  figure  you  would 
put  in  his  place."  Wilson  was  in  poor  health  at  this  time, 
and  the  speech  at  the  dinner  was  a  great  effort  to  him,  but 
it  was  an  admirable  speech,  and  it  was  hearty  in  its  apprecia- 
tion of  Dickens's  work.^ 

I  cannot  find  that  Dickens  and  Wilson  ever  met  after  1841, 
but  during  the  visit  they  saw  much  of  each  other,  and  the 
novelist  clearly  took  a  very  strong  liking  to  the  professor. 
This  meeting  of  the  two  men  aroused  great  interest  in  Scot- 
land, and  a  Scotch  artist,  A.  Lesage,  celebrated  it  in  cari- 
cature, in  which  he  showed  Dickens  being  introduced  to  Wil- 
son by  Jeffrey.  Wilson  is  leaning  upon  the  shoulder  of  Peter 
Robertson,  with  whom  Dickens  also  spent  several  pleasant 
hours  during  his  visit.  He  was  "a  large,  portly,  full-faced 
man,  with  a  merry  eye,  and  a  queer  way  of  looking  under 
his  spectacles  which  is  characteristic  and  pleasant."  Dickens 
added:  "He  seems  a  very  warm-hearted  earnest  man,  too, 
and  I  felt  quite  at  home  with  him  forthwith."  Three  years 
later  Peter  Robertson,  now  become  Lord  Robertson,  visited 

*  It  was  reprinted  io  full  in  The  Dickensian,  October,  1918. 
132 


SOME  SCOTCH  FRIENDS  133 

the  novelist  at  Albaro,  and  was  heartily  welcome.  Still  later 
we  find  him  a  frequent  guest  at  Devonshire  House,  where  he 
was  in  great  request  for  his  Scotch  mimicries. 

Others  whom  he  came  to  know  during  this  Scotch  visit 
were  Sir  William  Allan,  who  "squired  him  about"  all  one 
morning,  Adam  Black,  the  publisher,  Sir  Archibald  Alison 
(with  whom  he  became  very  friendly  during  his  second 
visit  to  Edinburgh  in  1847),  Lord  Murray,  Lord  Gillies, 
Joseph  Gordon,  Macvey  Napier  and  J.  C.  Colquhoun.  After 
the  banquetings  Dickens  journeyed  through  the  Highlands, 
accompanied  by  Angus  Fletcher  as  guide.  He  was  an  eccen- 
tric who  never  settled  down  to  any  occupation  and  preferred 
a  wandering  life  to  that  of  home.  "His  unfitness  for  an 
ordinary  career,"  says  Forster,  "was  perhaps  the  secret  of 
such  liking  for  him  as  Dickens  had.  Fletcher's  eccentricities 
and  absurdities,  divided  often  by  the  thinnest  partition  from 
a  foolish  extravagance,  but  occasionally  clever,  and  always 
the  genuine  though  whimsical  outgrowth  of  the  life  he  led, 
had  a  curious  charm  for  Dickens.  He  enjoyed  the  oddity 
and  humour;  tolerated  all  the  rest;  and  to  none  more  freely 
than  to  Kindheart  during  the  next  few  years,  both  in  Italy 
and  in  England,  opened  his  house  and  hospitality." 
Fletcher's  eccentricities  during  this  Highlands  tour  were  a 
great  source  of  merriment  to  Dickens. 

At  Albaro  in  1844  Fletcher — Mr.  Kindheart,  as  Dickens 
called  him — made  a  long  stay  with  the  novelist,  and  numerous 
are  the  references  to  his  eccentricities ;  numerous,  too,  are  the 
references  to  his  simple  kindliness.  He  loved  Dickens  greatly, 
and  in  his  zeal  once  instigated  the  people  of  Carrara  to 
organize  a  demonstrative  welcome  for  his  friend.  He  him- 
self was  staying  there,  and  knowing  that  Dickens  was  coming, 
took  steps  to  see  that  the  novelist  was  given  a  special  wel- 
come. "There  is  a  beautiful  little  theatre  there,  built  of 
marble;  and  they  had  it  illuminated  that  night,  in  my 
honour.  There  was  really  a  very  fair  opera.  ...  It  was 
crammed  to  excess,  and  I  had  a  great  reception ;  a  deputa- 
tion waiting  upon  us  in  the  box,  and  the  orchestra  turning 
out  in  a  body  afterwards  and  serenading  us  at  N.  Walton's." 

Fletcher  died  in  1862,  and  Dickens  wrote:  "Poor  Kiiid- 
heart !  I  think  of  all  that  made  him  so  pleasant  to  us,  and 
am  full  of  grief." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

A  DISTINGUISHED   GROUP 

There  are  many  other  friends  yet  to  be  noted  before  we 
pass  on  to  the  Gore  House  days,  and  some  of  these  may  be 
grouped  into  one  chapter. 

Dr.  John  EUiotson  is,  I  suppose,  best  remembered  as  the 
person  to  whom  Thackeray  dedicated  "Pendennis,"  but  that 
is  by  no  means  his  only  claim  to  fame.  For  instance,  he  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  University  College  Hospital.  He  lost 
his  professorship  at  London  University  in  1838  because  of  his 
conversion  to  mesmerism,  and  it  was  probably  his  reputation 
in  this  direction  that  first  attracted  Dickens  to  him.  "He 
had,"  says  Forster,  "always  sympathised  almost  as  strongly 
as  Archbishop  Whately  did  with  Doctor  Elliotson's  mesmeric 
investigations."  And  for  the  man  personally  Dickens  had 
a  great  regard.  "What  a  good  fellow  EUiotson  is,"  he 
wrote  to  Macready  in  1841,  and  Forster  writes  of  this  friend 
as  "the  kind  physician.  Dr.  EUiotson,  whose  name  was  for 
nearly  thirty  years  a  synonym  with  us  all  for  unwearied, 
self-sacrificing,  beneficent  service  to  every  one  in  need."  So 
early  as  1840  EUiotson  was  of  the  inner  circle,  and  in  1846 
we  find  him  spending  a  few  days  with  Dickens  at  Lausanne — 
"an  enjoyment  without  a  drawback";  and  right  through  the 
years,  though  we  know  very  little  of  their  associations,  the 
friendship  remained  as  close  and  earnest  as  at  the  beginning. 

Lord  Normanby,  "whose  many  acts  of  sympathy  and  kind- 
ness had  inspired  strong  regard  in  Dickens,"  was  an  early 
friend  and  a  very  valued  one  indeed.  Through  very  many 
years  a  steady  and  very  close  friendship  lasted,  and  Dickens 
paid  his  tribute  to  it  by  dedicating  Domhey  and  Son  to  his 
friend's  wife.  It  is  particularly  to  be  regretted  that  no 
record  of  this  friendship  exists,  for  Lord  Normanby  was 
one  of  Boz's  earliest  admirers ;  but  a  couple  of  references 
in  Forster's  book  is  all  I  have  been  able  to  find.  His  Lord- 
134 


A  DISTINGUISHED   GROUP  135 

ship  was  in  the  chair  at  the  Greenwich  dinner  in  1844,  he 
and  Dickens  saw  a  great  deal  of  each  other  in  Paris  at  dif- 
ferent times,  and  they  were  often  guests  at  each  other's 
homes.     And  that  is  all  we  know. 

Albany  Fonblanque  was  a  friend  of  these  very  early  days. 
He  was  much  more  Forster's  friend  than  Dickens's,  with 
whom  he  was  never  really  intimate,  but  none  the  less,  he  was 
well  liked  by  the  novelist,  and  he  is  entitled  to  special  mention 
for  the  reason  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  discern  the 
genius  of  Boz.  Indeed,  it  was  from  him  that  Forster  him- 
self first  heard  of  the  existence  of  this  young  writer  whose 
works  bore  such  promise.  The  Sketches  hy  Boz,  says 
Dickens's  biographer,  were  much  more  talked  about  than 
the  first  two  or  three  numbers  of  Pickwick,  "and  I  remember 
well  with  what  hearty  praise  the  book  was  named  to  me  by 
my  dear  friend,  Albany  Fonblanque,  as  keen  and  clear  a 
judge  as  ever  lived,  either  of  books  or  men."  Later  it  was 
Forster's  pleasure  to  make  Fonblanqre  and  Boz  acquainted. 
The  famous  journalist's  admiration  for  the  genius  of  Dickens 
was  great.     He  writes  on  one  occasion : 

"I  have  been  laid  up  with  one  of  my  attacks,  which 
I  mention  only  in  honour  of  Dickens,  who  carries  me 
through  such  sore  afflictions.  Last  year  I  took  to  my 
bed  in  company  with  Barnahy  Rudge  at  Paris.  This 
season  Martin  Chuzzlexvit  has  carried  me  through  my 
intestine  troubles.  The  Togers  {sic)  made  me  laugh  be- 
tween such  fits  as  Gil  Bias  should  have  had  to  warrant 
his  roars  in  the  cavern.  An  author  like  Dickens  cannot 
know  the  good  he  does  in  his  manifold  services  to  hu' 
manity  and  alleviating  ministrations  under  distress." 

He  became  a  welcome  guest  at  Dickens's  house,  but  I 
think  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  he  came  into  the 
Dickens  Circle  chiefly  by  virtue  of  his  great  friendship  with 
Forster.  He  was  a  good-hearted  man  of  brilliant  parts,  but 
he  was  not  a  strong  personality,  and  I  can  find  no  evidence 
that  he  had  any  great  appeal  for  Dickens.  The  novelist 
valued  him  as  a  critic,  of  course,  and  particularly  wished  him 
to  be  invited  to  the  reading  of  The  Chimes  at  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields  in  1844.     He  was  not  there,  but  when  the  reading  was 


136  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

repeated  a  day  or  two  later  he  attended.  Says  Forster, 
"Such  was  the  report  made  by  it  that  once  more,  on  the 
pressing  intercession  of  our  friend,  Thomas  Ingoldsby  (Mr. 
Barham),  there  was  a  second  reading  to  which  the  presence 
and  encouragement  of  Fonblanque  gave  new  zest." 

R.  H.  Barham,  of  "Ingoldsby"  fame,  was  undoubtedly 
held  in  considerable  regard  by  Dickens,  but  he  died  in  184<5, 
and  there  is  very  little  record  of  the  friendship  between  the 
brother  humourists.  It  would  appear  probable  that  they 
were  acquainted  in  1838.  In  December  of  that  year  Dickens 
wrote  a  delightful  letter  to  one  Master  Hastings  Hughes, 
who  had  written  to  him  stating  his  wishes  as  to  the  various 
rewards  and  punishments  to  be  meted  out  to  the  characters 
in  Nicklehy.  The  boy's  letter,  we  are  told,  was  forwarded 
to  him  through  Barham,  which  makes  it  pretty  certain  that 
Ingoldsby  and  Boz  were  acquainted.  In  1842,  as  we  have 
seen,  Barham  was  at  the  Greenwich  dinner.  Certainly  from 
that  time  he  was  a  frequent  guest  at  Dickens's  house. 
Further  evidence  that  they  were  on  particularly  friendly 
terms  is  provided  by  the  fact  which  has  just  been  noted  that 
in  December  1844  the  novelist  gave  a  second  private  reading 
of  The  Chimes  for  Barham's  express  benefit. 

It  surely  is  surprising  that  Dickens  and  Charles  Lever 
were  not  closer  friends  than  they  were.  There  is  such  a 
buoyant  joyousness  in  the  books  of  both  men,  reflecting  truly 
their  natures,  that  one  would  have  thought  they  would  have 
come  together  as  steel  and  magnet.  One  would  have  thought 
they  had  almost  everything  in  common.  Both  wore  great 
humourists,  both  had  large  hearts,  and  loved  their  kind,  both 
loved  good-fellowship  and  joviality.  Yet  there  was  scarcely 
any  friendship  between  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  for  years 
there  was  a  most  regrettable  coolness.  Lever's  biographer, 
Mr.  W.  J.  Fitzpatrick,  offers  an  explanation.  When  "Lorre- 
quer"  was  published,  he  says,  a  reviewer  declared  that  he 
would  rather  be  its  author  than  the  author  of  all  the  Piclc- 
•wicks  or  Nicklebys  in  the  world.  This  passage  was  used, 
with  others  of  a  similar  description,  in  advertisements,  "giv- 
ing much  annoyance  to  Dickens,  who  at  last  responded  un- 
graciously to  a  civil  letter  of  Lever's,  and  it  was  not  for 
years  that  friendly  relations  were  resumed."  Mr.  Fitzpat- 
rick adds  that  with  the  comparison  or  advertisements  Lever 


A  DISTINGUISHED   GROUP  137 

had  nothing  to  do.  One  is  glad  to  have  the  assurance,  for 
such  methods  surely  were  in  bad  taste. 

But  the  ill-feeling  passed  away  after  some  years,  and  in 
the  'sixties  Dickens  asked  Lever  to  write  a  story  for  All  the 
Year  Round.  Lever  responded  with  "A  Day's  Ride,  a  Life 
Romance."  Says  his  biographer :  "It  proved,  however,  a 
fatiguing  failure,  and  Lever  was  long  sore  from  the  effect 
of  it.  Dickens  complained  that  it  had  the  effect  of  depress- 
ing the  circulation  of  All  the  Year  Round;  and  at  last  re- 
sorted to  the  unusual  step  of  advertising  the  day  on  which 
the  prolonged  'ride'  was  to  end.  He  admitted  that  a  few 
good  glimpses  of  men  and  scenes  were  obtained — among 
others  of  Algernon  Potts,  the  predestinarian,  whose  adven- 
tures elicited  the  remark  that  'Lever,  letting  ofl'  a  good  deal 
of  Bohemia,  is  at  his  best  in  the  wild  vagaries  of  this  reckless 
day-dream.'  "  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  tells  the  same  story. 
"A  Day's  Ride,  a  Life  Romance,"  he  says,  brought  the  Jour- 
nal into  very  parlous  state,  and  Dickens  had  to  start  Great 
Expectations. 

There  is  nothing  much  else  to  be  recorded.  Lever's  story, 
"St.  Patrick's  Eve,"  was  founded  on  his  experiences  of  the 
great  sufferings  of  the  Irish  peasantry  during  the  cholera 
epidemic,  and,  says  his  biographer,  "though  not  avowed,  was 
suggested  by  Dickens's  Chimes,  which  had  just  scored  a 
success."  Another  interesting  fact  is  that  in  "Davenport 
Dunn,  the  Man  of  one  Day,"  Lever  made  use  of  some  lead- 
ing incidents  in  the  life  of  the  notorious  John  Sadler,  whom 
Dickens  took  for  the  original  of  Mr.  Merdle  in  Little  Dorrit. 

One  would  naturally  expect  to  find  a  friendship  between 
Sydney  Smith  and  Dickens,  and  one  did  exist,  though  it  was 
not  of  an  intimate  character.  They  met  early  in  the  novel- 
ist's career.  In  the  published  collection  of  Dickens's  Letters, 
we  find  one  to  William  Longman,  in  which  the  novelist 
writes :  "I  wish  you  would  tell  Sydney  Smith  that  of  all  the 
men  I  ever  heard  of  and  never  saw,  I  have  the  greatest 
curiosity  to  see  and  the  greatest  interest  to  know  him."  That 
letter,  which  is  undated,  is  placed  among  the  letters  of  the 
year  1839,  but  that  is  clearly  a  mistake,  for  in  the  previous 
year  we  find  Smith  writing  to  Dickens  in  a  vein  which  proves 
they  were  already  well  acquainted.  The  letter  refers  to  some 
ladies  of  Smith's  acquaintance  who  wished  to  meet  Dickens 


138  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

at  dinner,  and  it  proceeds:  "My  friends  have  not  the  small- 
est objection  to  being  put  into  a  number,  but  on  the  contrary 
would  be  proud  of  the  distinction;  Lady  Charlotte  in  par- 
ticular you  may  marry  to  Newman  Noggs." 

Curiously  enough,  the  great  wit  did  not  enjoy  PicJcwick. 
In  1837  Tom  Moore  records  that  he  met  Smith  at  a  dinner 
in  the  Row,  and  that  the  wit  cried  Dickens  down,  "and  evi- 
dently without  having  given  him  a  fair  trial."  Nicldehy 
conquered  him,  however,  and  it  was  the  number  in  which  Mrs. 
Nickleby  imparts  her  confidences  to  Miss  Knagg  that  clinched 
the  victory.  He  wrote  to  Sir  George  Phillips:  ^^NicMehy  is 
•very  good.  I  stood  out  against  Mr.  Dickens  as  long  as  I 
could,  but  he  has  conquered  me." 

From  that  time  Dickens  had  no  greater  admirer. 

The  following  letter,  written  in  1842,  soon  after  the  novel- 
ist's return  from  America,  is  proof  of  Smith's  personal  re- 
gard for  Dickens :  "I  accept  your  obliging  mvitation  con- 
ditionally. If  I  am  invited  by  any  man  of  greater  genius 
than  yours,  or  by  one  in  whose  works  I  have  been  more  com- 
pletely interested,  I  will  repudiate  you,  and  dine  with  the 
more  splendid  phenomenon  of  the  two." 

In  1840  they  were  on  very  friendly  terms,  and  Forster 
records  that  in  that  year  they  met  at  many  social  entertain- 
ments. And  so  it  was  till  the  end.  They  often  met  socially 
and  they  had  a  true  regard  for  each  other's  character  and 
genius.  The  last  time  they  met  was  in  1844  at  a  dinner  at 
Osnaburgh  Terrace  on  May  28. 

Smith  died  in  the  following  year,  and  two  years  later 
Dickens  paid  a  very  striking  tribute  to  his  memory,  by  nam- 
ing his  fifth  son  after  him — Sydney  Smith  Haldimand 
Dickens. 

Charles  Bullcr  was  at  the  dinner  to  Black,  so  that  Dickens 
must  have  known  him  fairly  well,  but  he  was  never  really 
one  of  the  novelist's  circle.  If  Lytton's  description  of  him 
was  correct,  he  could  not  have  been  very  acceptable  to  Boz. 
He  was  clever,  wrote  the  author  of  "Pclham,"  but  super- 
ficial— always  wanting  in  earnestness,  and  ironically  pert. 
Southwood  Jones,  another  of  the  company  at  that  dinner 
to  Black,  was  a  much  better  liked  friend,  who  was  often  at 
Dickens's  house. 

In  1841  Dickens  became  greatly  interested  in  the  Improve- 


A  DISTINGUISHED   GROUP  139 

ments  that  had  taken  place  in  the  London  prisons  during 
recent  years,  and,  saj^s  Forster,  "he  took  frequent  means  of 
stating  what  in  this  respect  had  been  done,  since  even  the 
date  when  his  Sketches  were  written,  by  two  most  efficient 
pubHc  officers  at  Clerkenwell  and  Tothill  Fields,  Mr.  Chester- 
ton and  Lieutenant  Tracey,  whom  the  course  of  these  in- 
quiries turned  into  private  friends."  These  two  gentlemen 
were  officials  of  the  kind  that  are  not  so  common  as  they 
ought  to  be — keen  for  beneficial  reform,  refusing  to  be  hide- 
bound by  Red  Tape;  and  Dickens  had  a  high  admiration 
of  the  valuable  work  they  did.  They  became  private  friends, 
but  not  intimate  friends,  and  never  had  an  important  place 
in  the  Dickens  Circle. 


CHAPTER  XX 

WILLIAM   JEKDAN 

In  this  place  shall  William  Jerdan  have  mention,  because, 
like  Fonblanque,  he  early  discerned  the  genius  of  Boz.  Nay, 
it  is  to  his  credit  that  he  went  out  of  his  way  to  offer  en- 
couragement to  the  young  writer. 

"With  Dickens"  (he  says),  "I  can  claim  long  friendly 
relations,  and  with  Thackeray  hai-dly  less  amicable  in- 
tercourse. In  the  first  morning  beam  of  public  delight 
upon  the  former  I  felt  the  full  glow,  and  looked  with 
prophetic  gladness  to  the  bright  day  which  I  was  sure 
must  follow  so  auspicious  a  dawning.  When  Sam  Weller 
appeared  on  the  canvas,  I  was  so  charmed  with  the 
creation  that  I  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to  write  to 
the  author  and  counsel  him  to  develop  the  novel  char- 
acter largely — to  the  utmost.  My  urgency  was  taken 
in  good  part,  and  we  improved  our  alliance  so  genially 
that  when  Pickwick  was  triumphantly  finished  and  a 
'semi-business  Pickwickian  sort  of  dinner'  ensued,  I  was 
invited  to  be  of  the  party  with  the  compliments  of  the 
author:  'I  depend  upon  i/ou  above  everybody.  .  .  .'  I 
cannot  describe  my  gratification.  The  party  was  de- 
lightful, with  Mr.  Sergeant  Talfourd  as  V.P.,  and  there 
the  pleasant  and  uncommon  fact  was  stated  .  .  .  that 
there  never  had  been  a  line  of  written  agreement,  but 
that  the  author,  printer,  artist,  and  publisher,  had  all 
proceeded  on  simple  verbal  assurances,  and  that  there 
never  had  arisen  a  word  to  interrupt  or  prevent  the 
complete  satisfaction  of  every  one." 

We  may  readily  believe  that  the  receipt  of  such  a  letter 
from  so  powerful  a  person  as  the  Editor  of  the  "Literary 
Gazette"  was  a  very  gratifying  event  to  the  young  novelist. 
140 


WILLIAM  JERDAN  141 

H.  F.  Chorley  says  that  Jerdan  was  "the  puppet  of  certain 
booksellers,  and  dispensed  praise  and  blame  at  their  bidding, 
and,  it  may  be  feared,  'for  a  consideration.'  "  The  value  of 
Chorley's  opinion  is  discounted  by  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
shining  light  of  the  "Athen^um,"  and,  moreover,  Jerdan 
meets  this  very  charge  in  his  "Autobiography"  and  pretty 
conclusively  disposes  of  it.  Nevertheless,  Jerdan  wielded  tre- 
mendous power,  and  praise  or  blame  from  him  very  often 
meant  the  making  or  the  marring  of  a  young  writer.  There- 
fore, his  letter  of  praise  and  encouragement  must  have  meant 
a  great  deal  to  the  twenty-four-years-old  Boz. 

Jerdan  was  also  at  the  NicMehy  dinner:  "On  a  later  occa- 
sion of  the  same  kind,"  he  says,  "I  was  flattered  by  the  nomi- 
nation to  occupy  the  post  of  honour  at  the  bottom  of  the 
table,  and  am  happy  to  remember  that  I  acquitted  myself 
so  creditably  of  its  onerous  duties  as  to  receive  the  appro- 
bation of  the  giver  of  the  feast,  his  better  half,  and  the  oi 
polloi  unanimously."  In  a  footnote  to  this,  he  says:  "I 
slyly  introduced  in  something  I  had  to  say  about  a  portrait 
of  her"  (Mrs.  Dickens's)  "husband  which  I  knew  she  longed 
to  possess ;  and  the  hint  was  taken  in  the  right  quarter  and 
the  painting  presented  to  her."  The  reference  obviously  is 
to  Maclise's  famous  picture.  Here  again  Jerdan  is  laying 
flattering  unction  to  his  soul.  He  may  have  given  the  "sly 
hint,"  and  he  may  have  assumed,  when  he  knew  that  the 
painting  was  in  Dickens's  possession,  that  his  hint  had  been 
acted  upon,  but,  of  course,  the  gift  was  to  Dickens  himself, 
and  it  was  a  spontaneous  act  of  Chapman  and  Hall's  without 
any  reference  to  "sly  hints"  from  Jordan  or  anybody  else. 

Reference  to  this  painting  of  Maclise's  reminds  us  of  a 
very  curious  link  between  Dickens  and  Jerdan  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made  by  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald.  He  points  to 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Pickwick  had  his  portrait  painted,  and  that 
it  was  a  portrait  "which  he  did  not  wish  to  be  destroj^ed 
when  he  grew  a  few  years  older."  Mr.  Fitzgerald  sees  in 
this  an  allusion  to  an  incident  that  created  a  sensation  in  the 
spring  of  1836 — just  at  the  time  that  Pickwick  was  in  the 
first  dawn  of  its  popularity.  Maclise  had  painted  a  portrait 
of  Sir  John  Soane,  the  famous  architect,  and  the  donor  to 
the  nation  of  the  Soane  Museum.  Sir  John  had  been  a  gen- 
erous donor  to  the  Literary  Fund,  and  he  ofi^ered  the  portrait 


142  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

for  hanging  in  the  Committee  room.  It  was  a  good  portrait, 
and  he  was  very  pleased  with  it,  until  somebody  put  it  into 
his  head  that  it  made  him  look  older  than  he  really  was.  Then 
he  demanded  that  it  should  be  replaced  by  a  portrait  by  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence,  which  he  offered  to  present. 

Maclise  demanded  his  painting  back;  Sir  John  insisted 
that  it  should  be  handed  to  him.  The  Committee  were  saved 
from  their  dilemma  by  some  one  cutting  the  portrait  to 
shreds.  That  some  one  was  Jerdan.  Macready,  in  his  Diary 
confirms  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  statement,  for  on  May  10,  1836, 
he  writes :  "Went  to  rehearsal,  calling  on  Forster  by  the  way, 
who  related  to  me  and  showed  me  a  statement  in  the 
'Chronicle'  of  the  occurrence  that  Jerdan  had  cut  to  pieces 
(as  he  had  said  at  Elstree  he  would  do)  Maclise's  portrait 
of  Sir  John  Soane,  who  had  been  absurdly  and  tetchily 
desirous  of  destroying  that  too  faithful  record  of  his  per- 
sonal appearance."  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  suggestion  that 
Dickens  had  this  incident  in  mind  when  he  wrote  the  sentence 
quoted  is  at  least  reasonable. 

Jerdan  was  associated  with  Dickens  in  the  adjustment  of 
the  difficulties  with  Bentley.  He  says  that  when  Dickens 
decided  to  repurchase  a  share  of  the  copyright  of  Oliver 
Twist,  "upon  my  table  the  sum  of  £2250  was  handed  over 
to  Mr.  Bentley,  and  both  parties  perfectly  satisfied."  This 
must  not  be  taken  too  literally,  for  the  agreement,  accord- 
ing to  Forster,  was  that  the  £2250  was  deducted  from  the 
purchase  money — £3000 — of  Barnahy  Rudge.  But  it  is 
true  that  Jerdan  had  a  hand  in  the  negotiations.  Forster 
says  that  it  was  a  note  from  Jerdan  on  behalf  of  Bentley 
that  opened  those  negotiations. 

Dickens  and  Jerdan  continued  to  be  friendly  acquaint- 
ances, visiting  one  another  occasionally,  meeting  sometimes 
in  social  life,  but  there  never  existed,  I  am  very  sure,  any 
fellowship.  Dickens  was  one  of  the  guests  at  the  dinner 
which  was  held  to  celebrate  the  twenty-fifth  birthday  of  the 
"Literary  Gazette,"  accepting  the  invitation  in  the  following 
terms : 

"I  am  going  into  Yorkshire  on  Monday  morning,  but 
having  fortunately  been  able  to  take  a  place  for  Tues- 
day, can  accept  your  kind  invitation. 


WILLIAM  JERDAN  143 

"Be  sure  that  among  all  the  congratulations  which 
will  be  offered  to  you  in  the  delightful  occasion  of  our 
meeting  there  will  be  none  more  cordial  and  warm- 
hearted than  mine.  By  the  time  we  dine  together  again 
to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  birthday  of  your  healthy  off- 
spring, I  shall  study  to  find  appropriate  things  to  clothe 
them  in;  till  then,  however,  I  fear  they  must  remain 
locked  up  in  my  heart — where  they  will  at  any  rate 
keep  warmer  than  on  the  lips  of,  my  dear  Jerdan,  yours 
most  faithfully, 

"Charles  Dickens." 

That  was  in  1852.  Subsequently  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
met  so  frequently  as  of  yore,  and  the  only  further  occasion 
on  which  I  can  find  their  names  linked  is  in  the  following 
year,  when  Dickens  was  one  of  the  Committee  that  organised 
a  testimonial  to  Jerdan  on  his  retirement  from  the  "Literary 
Gazette."  It  should,  however,  be  recorded  that  Jerdan  occa- 
sionally contributed  to  Household  Words  and  All  the  Year 
Round, 


CHAPTER  XXI 


JOHN  GIBSON  LOCKHART 


With  Scott's  son-in-law  Dickens  was  acquainted  from  his 
very  earliest  days  of  authorship.  Ainsworth  has  recorded 
that  Lockhart  thought  that  Pickwick  was  "all  very  well — 
but  damned  low !"  Which  is  interesting  in  view  of  the  facts 
that  at  the  time  Pickwick  was  written  Lockhart  was  Editor 
of  the  "Quarterly  Review" — which  Dickens  parodied  as  the 
"Quarrelly  Review"  for  the  purpose  of  some  dummy  book- 
backs  in  his  library — and  that  the  "Quarterly's"  was  the  only 
authoritative  voice  raised  even  in  mild  criticism.  For  it  was 
in  October  1837  that  the  famous  article  appeared  which 
warned  Dickens — quite  properly,  m  view  of  the  facts — that 
he  was  writing  too  much  and  too  often,  and  that,  having  gone 
up  like  a  rocket,  if  he  was  not  careful,  he  might  come  down 
like  the  stick. 

Lockhart  seems  to  have  had  many  qualities  that  made  it 
difficult  to  love  him,  and  especially  from  1837,  in  which  year 
the  first  of  a  scries  of  painful  domestic  sorrows  came  upon 
him,  he  seems  to  have  tried  the  patience  of  his  friends  pretty 
sorely.  That  caustic  wit  of  his  was  not  exactly  an  asset  to 
him  in  social  relations,  and  when  his  trials  came  upon  him 
he  developed  an  irritability  and  a  moroseness  that  did  not 
tend  to  win  for  him  affection.  In  her  "Life"  of  her  father. 
Professor  Wilson  ("Christopher  North"),  Mrs.  Gordon  says 
of  him  that  he  was  "cold,  haughty,  supercilious  in  manner," 
and  that  he  "seldom  won  love  and  not  infrequently  caused 
his  friends  to  distrust  it  in  him,  for  they  sometimes  found 
the  warmth  of  their  own  feelings  thrown  back  upon  them 
in  the  presence  of  this  cold  indifference." 

All  this  is  true,  but  if  he  had  his  faults  they  were  on  the 

surface.     He  was   generous   and  just,   and  bore  no  malice. 

Beneath  an  exterior  that  was  often  unpleasing  there  was  a 

tender  and  affectionate  heart,  and  by  those  who  took  the 

144 


JOHN  GIBSON  LOCKHART  145 

trouble  to  get  beneath  the  surface  and  to  understand  him 
he  was  held  in  high  esteem.  Carlyle,  for  instance,  who  was 
not  easy  to  please,  spoke  of  him,  we  are  told,  as  he  seldom 
spoke  of  any  man,  and  between  them  there  was  a  trusting 
confidence  quite  remarkable.  Dickens,  too,  saw  and  loved 
the  real  man,  and  a  letter  written  eight  years  after  Lock- 
hart's  death  is  evidence  of  the  regard  he  had  for  him.  Mrs. 
Lynn  Linton  wrote  a  review  of  Mrs.  Gordon's  book  for  All 
the  Year  Round,  and  in  it  she  made  some  reference  to  Scott's 
son-in-law  and  biographer,  which  Dickens  struck  out. 

"Will  you  tell  Mrs.  Linton"  (he  wrote  to  Wills)  "that 
in  looking  over  her  admirable  account  (most  admirable) 
of  Mrs.  Gordon's  book  I  have  taken  out  the  references 
to  Lockhart?  Not  because  I  in  the  least  doubt  their 
justice,  but  because  I  knew  him,  and  because  one  bright 
day  at  Rome  I  walked  about  with  him  for  some  hours 
when  he  was  dying  and  all  the  old  faults  had  faded  out 
of  him,  and  the  mere  ghost  of  the  handsome  man  I  had 
first  known  when  Scott's  daughter  was  at  the  head  of 
his  house  had  little  more  to  do  with  this  world  than 
she  in  her  grave,  or  Scott  in  his,  or  little  Hugh  Little- 
john  in  his.  Lockhart  had  been  anxious  to  see  me  all 
the  previous  day  (when  I  was  at  Campagne),  and  as  we 
walked  about  I  knew  very  well  that  7ie  knew  very  well 
why.  He  talked  of  getting  better,  but  I  never  saw  him 
again.  This  makes  me  stay  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  hand, 
gentle  as  it  is." 

Verily  Dickens  was  a  friend  worthy  the  name. 

I  do  not  know  when  Dickens  and  Lockhart  met.  Forster 
says  that  in  1839,  after  his  return  from  a  trip  into  Wales, 
Dickens  "had  pleasing  communications  with  Lockhart,  din- 
ing with  him  at  Cruikshank's  a  little  later;  and  this  was  the 
prelude  to  a  'Quarterly  Review'  article  on  Oliver  by  Mr. 
Ford,  written  at  the  instance  of  Lockhart,  but  without  the 
raciness  he  would  have  put  into  it,  in  which  amends  were 
made  for  previous  less  favourable  notices  in  that  Review. 
Dickens  had  not,  however,  waited  for  this  to  express  publicly 
his  hearty  sympathy  with  Lockhart's  handling  of  some  pas- 
sages in  his  admirable  'Life  of  Scott'  that  had  drawn  down 


146  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

upon  him  the  wrath  of  the  Ballantynes.    This  he  did  in  the 
'Examiner.'  "  ^ 

It  would  not  be  unnatural  to  infer  that  this  was  their 
first  acquaintanceship,  but  the  reference  by  Dickens  in  his 
letter  quoted  above  to  his  recollection  of  Lockhart  when 
"Scott's  daughter  was  at  the  head  of  his  house"  proves  that 
the  inference  would  be  wrong,  for  Mrs.  Lockhart  died  in 
1837.  So  that  Boz  and  the  Editor  of  the  "Quarrelly  Re- 
view" must  have  known  each  other  when  Pickzmck  was  still 
the  one  topic  of  conversation.  They  remained  very  good 
friends,  dining  at  each  other's  homes  occasionally,  and  more 
often  meeting  at  what  Forster  calls  "social  foregatherings." 

iTwo  articles,  entitled  "Scott  and  his  Publishers,"  in  the  "Examiner," 
March  31  and  September  29,  1839.    Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Papers. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

SAMUEL    ROGERS 

Samuel  Rogers  was  another  friend  of  these  days,  who 
must  have  special  prominence  here  because  Dickens  dedi- 
cated The  Old  Curiosity  Shop  to  him.  Of  all  the  novelist's 
friendships  there  surely  is  none  at  first  thought  more  puz- 
zling than  this  one.  We  find  Dickens  always  speaking  or 
writing  of  him  in  terms  of  regard,  or  of  friendly  feeling, 
yet  scarcely  a  writer  who  knew  the  man  and  has  left  any- 
thing like  a  portrait  of  him,  has  painted  a  pleasant  picture. 
I  am  not  so  sure  that  I  would  accept  William  Jerdan's  esti- 
mate of  any  man  too  literally,  but  his  estimate  of  Samuel 
Rogers  is  unpleasantly  in  accord  with  the  portraits  preserved 
for  us  by  most  other  writers  of  the  time.  ",  .  .It  did  not 
appear,"  he  says,  "that  the  nonagenarian  (whatever  he  might 
have  enjoyed  half  a  century  before)  had  any  friends.  I  never 
saw  about  him  any  but  acquaintances  or  toadies.  Had  he 
outlived  them?  No;  he  was  not  of  a  nature  to  have  any 
friends.  .  .  .  The  posthumous  laudation  lavished  upon  him 
by  his  political  cronies  was  purely  of  the  de  mortuis  nil  nisi 
honum  kind.  He  never  received  that  coin  when  alive;  for, 
if  the  truth  be  told,  his  liberality  and  generosity  were  small 
specks  which  could  not  bear  blazon,  and  he  was  radically  ill- 
tempered." 

How  are  we  to  reconcile  this  with  the  terms  of  Dickens's 
dedication  of  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop? 

To 

SAMUEL  ROGERS, 

One  of  the  few  Men 

Whom  Riches  and  Honoub 

Have  not  spoiled, 

And  who  have  preserved 

In  High  Places 

Active  Sympathy  with 

The  Poorest 

And  Humblest 

Of  their  Kind. 

147 


148  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Puzzling,  is  it  not?  Yet,  Barry  Cornwall  gives  corrobo- 
rative testimony.  "It  has  been  rumored,"  says  Proctor, 
"that  he  was  a  sayer  of  bitter  things.  I  know  he  was  a 
e/iver  of  good  things — kind  and  amiable  where  a  potion  was 
wanted,  never  ostentatious  or  oppressive,  and  always  a  friend 
in  need."  I  suppose  the  truth  is  that  Rogers  had  a  soft 
spot  somewhere  in  his  heart,  and  that  only  men  of  genuine 
human  sympathy,  such  as  Dickens  and  Proctor  were,  were 
able  to  see  beneath  a  decidedly  forbidding  surface.  All  the 
same,  I  think  the  old  man  was  not  much  more  than  an 
acquaintance  of  Dickens's.  There  was  a  friendliness  rather 
than  a  friendship.  We  have  to  observe  that  to  a  young  writer 
like  Dickens  there  was  a  glamour  surrounding  a  man  who 
belonged  to  a  generation  that  had  passed  away.  Rogers 
was,  indeed,  a  relic  of  the  past,  more  so  than  Leigh  Hunt, 
moi-e  so,  even,  than  Landor ;  for  Hunt  was  but  little  past  the 
prime  of  life  when  Dickens  sprang  into  fame,  and  though 
Landor  was  much  older,  his  joy  in  life  had  not  abated;  he 
lived  still  in  the  present.  Rogers  was  yet  older  than  Landor. 
To  Dickens,  I  fancy,  he  was  more  of  a  curiosity  than  any- 
thing else — though  it  is  certain  that  the  novelist  liked  him, 
and  does  seem  to  have  been  a  favourite.  I  cannot  but  think 
that  Dickens  was  admitted  to  greater  intimacy  than  Jerdan 
and  some  others;  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  bright,  joyous 
young  Boz,  overflowing,  in  the  first  flush  of  his  success,  with 
the  joy  of  life,  must  have  captivated — so  far  as  it  was  pos- 
sible for  such  a  man  to  be  captivated — the  cynical  old 
banker-poet. 

This  friendship — or  friendliness — between  Boz  and  the 
wizened  old  poet  was  assuredly  a  quaint  association.  But, 
after  all,  Rogers  had  moved  in  literary  and  artistic  circles — 
had  been  the  centre  of  a  brilliant  circle  for  a  couple  of  gen- 
erations or  more — and  to  the  young  Boz,  fresh  from  poverty 
and  drudgery,  it  must  have  meant  much  to  be  admitted  to 
such  a  circle.  That  Rogers  liked  him  there  is  plenty  of  evi- 
dence to  show.  It  was  not  Dickens's  books  that  attracted 
him,  for  we  are  told  that  "he  did  not  recognise  how  great  a 
genius  was  that  of  Charles  Dickens,"  whilst  Mr.  H.  Ellis 
Roberts  says  ^  that  "when  Dickens  published  the  Christmas 

»  "Samuel  Rogers  and  his  Circle." 


Samuel  ItotiicKs 
From  a  Drawing  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  P.R.A. 


SAMUEL  ROGERS  149 

Carol  in  1843,  hf*  sent  a  copy  to  Rogers,  hoping  he  would 
like  the  slight  fancy  it  embodied,  but  the  old  man  was  now 
beyond  appreciating  the  new  genius:  he  fell  asleep  over  the 
first  half-hour's  reading  because  he  found  it  so  dull ;  the  next 
hour  was  so  painful  that  he  had  to  finish  it  in  order  to  remove 
the  impression." 

No,  it  was  not  Dickens's  books  that  attracted  Rogers. 
May  it  not  have  been  that  the  presence  of  the  buoyant  young 
writer  was  to  the  old  man  as  tlie  first  sight  of  the  blue  sky 
and  green  fields  is  to  the  invalid  who  has  just  arisen  from  a 
sick-bed  with  hope  that  had  been  almost  extinguished  once 
more  restored?  May  it  not  have  been  that  this  young  man's 
hearty  enjoyment  of  life  carried  its  infection  even  into  the 
heart  of  this  rich  old  bachelor,  and  brought  back  to  him 
the  days  when  he  might  have  written  "The  Pleasures  of 
Hope".? 

Samuel  Carter  Hall — not  a  very  charitable  critic — tells  us 
of  Rogers  that  "you  could  not  fancy  when  you  looked  upon 
him  that  you  saw  a  good  man.  It  was  a  repulsive  counte- 
nance; to  say  it  was  ugly  would  be  to  pay  it  a  compliment, 
and  I  verily  believe  it  was  indicative  of  the  naturally 
shrivelled  heart  and  contracted  soul."  Henry  Fothergill 
Chorley  is  less  sweeping.  He  tells  us  how  perverse  and  in- 
human Rogers  could  be  where  he  did  not  like,  and  how  uncivil 
he  could  be,  but  he  also  states  his  belief  that  the  crookedness 
and  the  incivility  of  some  of  his  humours  "had  nothing  to  do 
with  his  heart  and  his  hand  when  the  one  told  the  other  to 
give.  Rogers's  hospitality  to  poets,"  he  adds,  "might  be 
pleasant  to  himself,  and  no  less  so  his  handsome  reception 
of  every  handsome  woman,  but  for  the  poor  struggling,  suf- 
fering man  of  genius,  and  to  the  garret,  ...  he  was,  I 
believe,  a  deliberate  almoner,  a  liberal  distributor,  and  a 
frequent  visitor.  Bilious,  vicious,  cruel,  as  he  was  with  his 
tongue,  Rogers  was,  I  know,  a  kindly  and  indefatigable  friend 
to  many  humble  men  and  to  a  few  less  humble  men." 

We  shall  be  pretty  safe  in  accepting  Chorley's  estimate  in 
preference  to  Hall's,  for  after  all,  if  Rogers  had  been  every- 
thing that  Hall  and  Jerdan  say  he  was,  he  would  never  have 
been  for  more  than  half  a  century  the  centre  of  such  a  bril- 
liant circle.  For  all  the  members  of  that  circle  could  not 
have  been  toadies;  there  must  have  been  something  that  at- 


150  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

tracted  them  to  the  man.  If  he  had  been  such  a  man  as 
Hall  and  Jerdan  say  he  was,  can  we  believe  that  Dickens 
would  have  accompanied  his  Dedication  of  The  Old  Curiosity 
Shop  with  such  a  letter  as  this? — "Let  me  have  my  'Pleas- 
ures of  Memory'  in  connection  with  this  book  by  dedicating 
it  to  a  poet  whose  writings  (as  all  the  world  knows)  are 
replete  with  genius  and  earnest  feeling;  and  to  a  man  whose 
daily  life  (as  all  the  world  docs  not  know)  is  one  of  active 
sympathy  with  the  poorest  and  humblest  of  his  kind." — 
"As  all  the  world  does  not  know."  As  Hall  and  Jerdan  did 
not  know;  as  Dickens,  we  may  be  very  sure,  did  know.  There 
must  have  been  a  side  to  the  old  man's  character  which  was 
revealed  only  to  the  few,  and  one  of  those  few  was  Charles 
Dickens. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THOMAS  HOOD 

And  now  we  come  to  a  far  more  lovable  man  than  either 
of  the  two  from  whom  we  have  just  parted.  Naturally  Tom 
Hood  was  one  of  Dickens's  friends.  We  should  expect  to  find 
a  strong  affinity  between  two  such  men.  Each  was  a  humor- 
ist who  used  his  great  gifts  of  humour  for  the  highest  pur- 
poses ;  each  had  a  burning  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  suf- 
fering and  an  intense  hatred  of  social  injustice;  the  work 
of  each  was  governed  supremely  by  the  heart. 

Each  had  a  high  opinion  of  the  other's  work.  Hood's 
article  on  the  first  volume  of  Master  Humphrey's  Clock  is 
well  known.  It  is  the  article  in  which  he  wrote  of  Dickens: 
"The  poor  are  his  especial  clients.  He  delights  to  show 
Worth  in  low  places — living  up  a  court,  for  example,  with 
Kit  and  the  industrious  washerwoman,  his  mother.  To 
exhibit  Honesty  holding  a  gentleman's  horse,  or  Poverty  be- 
stowing alms."  It  was  to  this  article  Dickens  referred  in  his 
preface  to  the  first  cheap  edition  of  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop 
in  1845 : 

"I  have  a  sorrowful  pride  in  one  recollection  asso- 
ciated with  'Little  Nell.'  While  she  was  yet  upon  her 
wanderings,  not  then  concluded,  there  appeared  in  a 
literary  journal,  an  essay  of  which  she  was  the  principal 
theme,  so  earnestly,  so  eloquently,  and  so  tenderly  ap- 
preciative of  her  and  of  all  her  shadowy  kith  and  kin, 
that  it  would  have  been  insensibility  in  me  if  I  could 
have  read  it  without  an  unusual  glow  of  pleasure  and 
encouragement.  Long  afterwards,  and  when  I  had  come 
to  know  him  well,  and  to  see  him  stout  of  heart  going 
slowly  down  into  his  grave,  I  knew  the  writer  of  that 
essay  to  be  Thomas  Hood.'* 
151 


152  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

The  article  appeared  in  1840,  and  Dickens's  words  suggest 
that  he  was  not  personally  acquainted  with  the  poet  then. 
But  before  that,  Hood  had  many  times  expressed  his  appre- 
ciation of  Boz's  work.  To  Dilke,  in  1839,  for  instance,  he 
had  written: 

"As  regards  Boz,  his  morale  is  better  than  his  ma- 
terial, though  that  is  often  very  good;  it  is  •wholesome 
reading;  the  drift  is  natural,  along  with  the  great 
human  currents,  and  not  against  them.  His  purpose, 
sound,  with  that  honest  independence  of  thinking,  which 
is  the  constant  adjunct  of  true-heartedness,  recognising 
good  in  low  places,  and  evil  in  high  ones,  in  short  a 
manly  assertion  of  Truth  as  truth.  Compared  with  such 
merits,  his  defect  of  overpainting,  and  the  like,  are  but 
spots  on  the  sun.  For  these  merits  alone,  he  deserves 
all  the  success  he  has  obtained,  and  long  may  he  enjoy 
them!" 

And  Dickens  had  shown  in  the  same  year  his  sympathy 
with  the  poet,  with  whom,  at  the  most,  he  was  then  very 
slightly  acquainted.  For  it  is  in  reference  to  this  year  that 
Forster  says :  "I  find  him  noticing  a  book  by  Thomas  Hood : 
*rather  poor,  but  I  have  not  said  so,  because  Hood  is  too, 
and  ill  besides.' "  The  book  referred  to  was  "Up  the 
Rhine,"  and  the  review  was  written  for  the  "Examiner." 

When  Dickens  and  Hood  first  met  I  cannot  discover,  but 
it  is  recorded  that  after  that  meeting  the  poet  went  home 
and  told  his  wife  to  cut  off  his  hand  and  bottle  it,  because 
he  had  shaken  hands  with  Boz!  By  1841  they  were  close 
personal  friends.  "Didn't  you  enjoy  PicJcwick?"  writes  the 
poet  to  a  friend  in  April  of  that  3'ear.  "It  is  so  very  Eng- 
lish !  I  felt  sure  you  would.  Boz  is  a  very  good  fellow,  and 
he  and  I  are  very  good  friends."  In  the  following  year  Hood 
was  one  of  the  company  at  the  Greenwich  dinner  to  welcome 
Dickens  back  from  America.  I  shall  earn  no  one's  ill-favour 
if  I  quote  his  account  of  that  dinner,  which  he  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Elliot. 

"Jerdan  was  the  Vice,  and  a  certain  person,  not  very 
well  adapted  to  fill  a  Chair,  was  to  have  occupied  the 


THOMAS  HOOD  153 

opposite  Virtue,  but  on  the  score  of  ill-health  I  begged 
off,  and  Captain  Marryat  presided  instead.  On  his  right 
Dickens  and  Monckton  Milnes,  the  poetical  M.P. ;  on 
his  left  Sir  John  Wilson,  T.  H.,  and  for  my  left-hand 
neighbour  Doctor  Elliot^o?^.  .  .  .  The  Kelso  man  was 
supported  by  Forster  and  Stanfield  the  painter. 
Amongst  the  rest  were  Charles  and  Tom  Landseer.  .  .  . 
Father  Prout  and  Ainsworth;  these  two  were  at  paper 
war — therefore  some  six,  including  a  clergyman,  were 
put  between  them.  Proctor,  alias  Barry  Cornwall,  and 
Barham,  otherwise  Ingoldsby,  Cruikshank  and  Catter- 
mole,  a  Dr.  Quynne  or  Quin,^  and  a  Rev.  Mr.  Wilde. ^ 
"Well,  we  drank  Hhe  Boz'  with  a  delectable  clatter, 
which  drew  from  him  a  good  warm-hearted  speech,  in 
which  he  hinted  the  great  advantage  of  going  to 
America  for  the  pleasure  of  coming  back  again;  and 
pleasantly  described  the  embarrassing  attentions  of  the 
Transatlantickers,  who  made  his  private  house  and  pri- 
vate cabin  particularly  public.  He  looked  very  well, 
and  had  a  younger  brother  along  with  him.  .  .  .  Then 
we  had  more  songs.  Barham  chanted  a  Robin  Hood 
ballad,  and  Cruikshank  sang  a  burlesque  ballad  of  Lord 
Bateman ;  and  somebody,  unknown  to  me,  gave  a  capital 
imitation  of  a  French  showman.  Then  we  toasted  Mrs. 
Boz,  and  the  Chairman,  and  Vice,  and  the  Traditional 
Priest^  sang  the  'Deep  deep  sea'  in  his  deep,  deep  voice; 
and  then  we  drank  to  Proctor,  who  wrote  the  same  song ; 
also  Sir  J.  Wilson's  good  health,  and  Cruikshank's  and 
Ainsworth's.  ,  .  .  Jerdan  as  Jerdanish  as  usual  on  such 
occasions — you  know  how  paradoxically  he  is  quite  at 
home  in  dining  out.  As  to  myself,  I  had  to  make  my 
second  maiden  speech,  for  Monckton  Milnes  proposed 
my  health  in  terms  my  modesty  allows  me  to  repeat  to 
you;  but  my  memory  won't.  However,  I  ascribed  the 
toast  to  my  notoriously  bad  health,  and  assured  them 
that  their  wishes  had  already  improved  it — that  I  felt 
a  brisker  circulation — a  more  genial  warmth  about  the 
heart,  and  explained  that  a  certain  trembling  of  my 
hands  were  not  from  palsy,  or  my  old  ague,  but  an  in- 

»  Quin,  of  course.  ^  ?  The  Rev.  James  White.  3  Father  Prout. 


154  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

clination  in  my  hand  to  shake  itself  with  every  one 
present.  Whereupon  I  had  to  go  through  the  friendly 
ceremony  with  as  many  of  the  company  as  were  within 
reach,  besides  a  few  more  who  came  express  from  the 
other  end  of  the  table.  .  .  .  Boz  kindly  sent  me  in  his 
own  carriage." 

In  1844  Dickens  promised  a  contribution  to  "Hood's 
Magazine  and  Comic  Miscellany,"  and  Hood  wrote  to  him: 
"My  dear  Dickens, — I  cannot  say  how  delighted  I  was  to 
learn  from  my  friend  Ward  that  you  had  promised  me  a 
little  bit  of  writing  to  help  me  to  launch  afloat  again.  It 
has  become  a  cruel  business,  and  I  really  wanted  to  help  in  it, 
or  I  should  not  have  announced  it,  knowing  how  much  you 
have  to  do."  The  "bit  of  writing"  was  Threatening  Letter 
to  Thomas  Hood,  from  an  ancient  Gentleman  ^ — a  satire  on 
the  existing  craze  for  the  famous  midget,  Tom  Thumb. 

At  the  end  of  1844*  Hood  took  to  his  bed  finally,  yet  there 
he  wrote  a  review  of  The  Chimes. 

1  See  MiscellaneQus  Papers. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


LEIGH  HUNT 


The  friendship  with  Leigh  Hunt  was  one  of  those  formed 
through  Forster  in  the  first  days  of  popularit3^  The  poet, 
however,  was  never  one  of  the  inner  Dickens  circle.  Indeed, 
it  would  be  nearer  accuracy  to  say  that  Dickens  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Hunt's  circle,  than  that  the  author  of  "Abou  Ben 
Adhem"  was  of  the  Dickens  circle.  For  Hunt  belonged  to 
an  older  school,  although  he  was  only  fifty-two  years  old  when 
Dickens  leaped  into  fame.  He  had  suffered  imprisonment 
for  his  political  views,  had  known  and  loved  Shelley,  upon 
the  immortal  light  of  whose  funeral  pile  he  had  gazed,  had 
worshipped  at  the  Byron  shrine — ^had,  indeed,  been  a  planet 
in  the  firmament  of  letters,  long  before  the  Dickens  planet 
had  assumed  the  dimensions  of  a  distant  star.  But  there  was 
a  genuine  friendship.  Hunt  recognised  Dickens's  genius,  and 
appreciated  his  personal  worth,  whilst  Dickens  perceived  the 
true  sweetness  of  Hunt's  character,  and  loved  his  oddities. 

Dickens,  as  we  have  noted,  was  introduced  to  Hunt  by 
Forster,  and  on  the  very  next  day  that  "mutual  friend"  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  the  poet,  saying,  "What  a  face  is  his 
to  meet  in  a  drawing-room!  It  has  the  hfe  and  soul  in  it 
of  fifty  human  beings."  There  are  very  few  records  of  meet- 
ings between  Hunt  and  Dickens,  and  not  one  of  the  novelist's 
letters  to  his  friend  seems  to  have  been  preserved;  but  from 
that  first  meeting  there  sprang  a  friendship  which  was  not 
broken  except  by  death.  They  must  have  met  often,  though 
obviously  we  should  not  expect  to  find  Hunt  sharing  in  those 
long  country  walks  and  rides  indulged  in  almost  daily  by 
Dickens  and  Forster,  Ainsworth  and  Maclise.  It  would  be 
difficult,  for  instance,  to  imagine  Leigh  Hunt  tramping  out 
to  Jack  Straw's  Castle,  and  enjoying  at  that  "good  'ouse" 
a  "red-hot  chop"!  But  we  find  in  1839  Dickens  writing  to 
J.  P.  Harley:  "This  is  my  birthday.  Many  happy  returns 
155 


156  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

of  the  day  to  you  and  me.  I  took  it  into  my  head  yesterday 
to  get  up  an  impromptu  dinner  on  this  auspicious  occasion 
' — only  my  own  folks,  Leigh  Hunt,  Ainsworth,  and  Forster. 
.  .  .  Lord  bless  my  soul !  Twenty-seven  years  old.  Who'd 
have  thought  it.?    I  7iever  did\    But  I  grow  sentimental." 

In  1847  Dickens  gave  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
regard  in  which  he  held  Hunt,  and  numbered  himself  among 
the  many  who  had  rendered  practical  aid  to  this  least  worldly 
and  practical  of  men.  Hunt  tells  us  in  his  "Autobiography" 
that  throughout  his  life  the  multiplication  table  had  been  a 
mystery  to  him.  He  had  been  indebted  to  Shelley  and  to 
Byron,  whilst  a  relative  of  the  former  had  made  him  an  allow- 
ance, and  still,  with  it  all,  he  had  always  lived  from  hand  to 
mouth.  Not  because  he  was  lacking  in  principle — as  with 
Skimpole — but  simply  because  though  in  the  world,  he  was 
never  of  it.  And  now,  in  his  closing  years,  the  literary  men 
of  a  new  generation  were  to  help  him,  as  those  of  his  earlier 
years  had  done.  Dickens  rallied  round  him  that  wonderful 
company  of  amateur  actors  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made  so  often.  It  was  decided  to  give  performances  of 
"Every  Man  in  his  Humour"  in  London  and  the  provinces, 
but  while  the  arrangements  were  still  incomplete  Hunt  was 
granted  a  Civil  List  pension  of  £200  a  year,  and  in  conse- 
quence the  London  performances  were  cancelled,  and  it  was 
agreed  to  play  only  at  Manchester  and  Liverpool. 

And  now  to  the  unfortunate  Skimpole  incident.  Un- 
doubtedly Dickens  cannot  be  acquitted  of  a  serious  breach 
of  good  taste.  The  pity  of  it  all  was  that  men  came  to  sa}', 
"Skimpole  is  Leigh  Hunt."  It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  this  is  the  notion  of  the  average  man  in  the  street  to 
this  very  day.  And  yet,  on  the  testimony  of  every  one  who 
knew  him,  the  notion  is  utterly  wrong.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  whole  of  the  trouble  arose  out  of  Skimpole's  wwlikeness 
to  his  original — an  apparent  paradox  but  the  actual  truth. 
Few  English  men  of  letters  have  been  more  charming  or  better 
men  than  Hunt.  Even  S.  C.  Hall  speaks  well  of  him,  which 
is  saying  much.  This  is  what  he  says  of  Leigh  Hunt:  "His 
famous  sonnet,  'Abou  Ben  Adhem,'  may  have  been  inspired 
by  an  Eastern  apothegm,  but  it  was  none  the  less  an  outpour- 
ing of  his  own  large  heart."  No  higher  praise  was  ever 
uttered  of  any  man.     James  Payn  says  that  selfishness  and 


m-^ 

^\             V 

p>^ 

A 

'^^ 

^  4 

4-^ 

i 

LEIGH  HUNT  157 

baseness  had  nought  to  do  with  Hunt:  "they  were  utterly 
opposed  to  his  character."  Dickens  himself  says  that  Hunt's 
life  was  "of  the  most  amiable  and  domestic  kind,  that  his 
wants  were  few,  that  his  way  of  life  was  frugal,  that  he  was 
a  man  of  small  expenses,  no  ostentations,  a  diligent  labourer, 
and  a  secluded  man  of  letters." 

How  came  Dickens,  then,  to  pillory  such  a  man  as  "a  sen- 
timentalist, brilliant,  vivacious,  and  engaging,  but  thor- 
oughly selfish  and  unprincipled"  .'^  The  most  commonly  ac- 
cepted idea  is  that  he  merely  wanted  to  transpose  into  his 
book  the  sentimentalism,  and  the  brilliant,  vivacious,  and 
engaging  qualities  of  Hunt,  and  that  he  made  the  mistake 
of  giving  those  qualities  to  a  selfish  and  unprincipled  man, 
never  dreaming  that  with  his  readers  the  evil  as  well  as  the 
good  would  be  attributed  to  Hunt — that,  in  short,  he  was 
charmed  with  Hunt's  engaging  ways,  and  desired  to — shall 
we  say  immortalise  them?  Assuming  that  this  is  the  whole 
truth,  there  would  have  been  no  harm  in  it  if  he  had  given 
those  engaging  ways  to  a  pleasant  character.  In  the  very 
same  book  he  treated  another  poet-friend  in  this  way;  but 
gave  no  offence,  because  he  insisted  on  the  innate  tenderness 
and  goodness  underlying  Boythorne's  rough  and  brusque 
exterior — because,  in  fact,  he  gave  a  complete  picture  of  the 
man.  In  the  case  of  Leigh  Hunt  he  placed  all  the  charming 
oddities  and  whimsicalities  upon  a  thoroughly  odious  char- 
acter. It  was  bad  taste;  and  that  Dickens  could  have  been 
guilty  of  it  will  never  cease  to  astonish  us. 

But  is  this  the  whole  truth?  I  have  always  had  an  idea 
that  it  Is  not.  I  cannot  resist  the  thought  that  there  was 
something  more  in  It  than  this.  However  much  Dickens 
might  like  Hunt,  and  however  much  he  might  be  charmed  with 
the  poet's  manner,  is  it  not  probable  that  he  would  dislike 
very  strongly  some  of  the  extravagant — almost  perverse — 
views  on  morality  that  Hunt  was  in  the  habit  of  expressing 
in  print  and  In  conversation?  And  is  It  not  probable  that 
the  novelist  tried  to  present  an  object  lesson  of  their  dan- 
gers? Dickens  was  as  strong  a  believer  as  ever  lived  In  the 
Importance  of  self-reliance.  Dilettantism  was  anathema  to 
him:  we  recall  how,  even  in  his  sincerely  appreciative  "In 
Mcmorlam"  article  on  Thackeray  he  hints  at  his  resentment 
of  what  he  thought  was  that  great  writer's  failure  to  take 


158  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

his  art  seriously.  And  though  Hunt  was  undoubtedly  a  hard 
worker,  there  was  a  suggestion  of  the  dilettante  in  him  which 
would  irritate  Dickens.  Forster  quotes  a  passage  from  the 
"Tatler,"  which  he  says  had  "unluckily  attracted  Dickens's 
notice" : 

"Supposing  us  to  be  in  want  of  patronage,  and  In  pos- 
session of  talent  enough  to  make  it  an  honour  to  notice 
us,  we  would  much  rather  have  some  great  and  com- 
paratively private  friend,  rich  enough  to  assist  us,  and 
amiable  enough  to  render  obligation  delightful,  than  be- 
come the  public  property  of  any  man,  or  of  any  gov- 
ernment. .  .  .  If  a  divinity  had  given  us  our  choice, 
we  should  have  said — make  us  La  Fontaine,  who  goes 
and  lives  twenty  years  with  some  rich  friend,  as  inno- 
cent of  any  harm  in  it  as  a  child,  and  who  writes  what 
he  thinks  charming  verses,  sitting  all  day  under  a  tree." 

To  those  who  understand  Hvmt,  Forster's  hint  that  this 
must  not  be  taken  too  seriously,  as  expressing  its  writer's 
own  morality,  is  unnecessary.  But  there  it  is,  printed  and 
published  for  all  to  read.  We  may  here  quote  a  passage 
from  the  "Autobiography": 

"I  would  not  have  missed  the  obligations  I  have  had 
from  my  friends ;  no,  hardly  to  have  been  exempt  from 
all  the  cares  of  money;  so  little  do  I  hold  with  that 
writer  who  spoke  the  other  day  of  the  'degrading  obli- 
gations of  private  friendship.'  I  see  beyond  that.  But 
I  do  not  the  less  hold  with  him  that  it  is  'comely  and 
sweet'  to  be  able  to  earn  one's  own  sufficiency.  I  only 
think  that  it  should  not  be  made  so  hard  a  matter  to 
do  so  as  it  very  often  is  by  the  systems  of  society,  and 
by  the  effects  which  we  have  in  reserve  for  us  even 
before  we  are  born,  and  in  our  very  temperaments  as 
well  as  fortunes ;  and  I  think  also  that  the  world  would 
have  been  the  losers  in  a  very  large  way — far  beyond 
what  the  utilitarians  suppose,  and  yet  on  their  own 
ground — if  certain  men  of  a  lively  and  improvident 
genius — humanists  of  the  most  persuasive  order,  had 
not   sometimes  felt  themselves  under  the  necessity   of 


LEIGH  HUNT  159 

being  assisted  in  a  smaller  way.  But  I  desire,  for  my 
own  part,  not  to  be  excused  in  anything,  in  which  I 
do  not  take  the  whole  of  my  fellow-creatures  and  their 
errors  along  with  me.  Let  me  not  be  left  out  of  the 
pale  of  humanity  for  praise  or  for  blame,  and  I  am  con- 
tent. I  desire  only  to  teach  and  be  taught,  or  if  that 
be  too  presumptuous  a  saying,  to  learn  and  compare 
notes.  ..." 

Now,  there  is  truth  in  all  this ;  and  to  those  who  knew  the 
man  it  was  unobjectionable,  but  it  is  a  dangerous  doctrine 
to  be  taught  broadcast.  Such  sentiments  might  be  moral 
enough  coming  from  Hunt,  but  let  a  thriftless,  unprincipled 
Harold  Skimpole  imbibe  them,  and  the  danger  that  lurks  in 
them  is  very  quickly  recognised.  Such,  I  think,  may  have 
been  Dickens's  object.  He  wanted  to  show  how  fine  is  the 
line  that  divides  Leigh  Hunt  and  Harold  Skimpole — how 
easily  such  sentiments  may  be  perverted  from  truth  into  mere 
sophistry. 

This  does  not  mean  that  we  need  doubt  him  when  he  says 
that  "He  had  no  more  thought,  God  forgive  him !  that  the 
admired  original  would  ever  be  charged  with  the  imaginary 
vices  of  the  fictitious  creature,  than  he  has  himself  ever 
thought  of  charging  the  blood  of  Desdemona  and  Othello  on 
the  innocent  Academy  model  who  sat  for  lago's  leg  in  the 
picture."  The  trouble  was  that  he  did  not  stop  to  consider 
that  it  was  a  sheer  impossibility  to  carry  out  his  purpose 
without  sugggesting  such  an  intention.  To  carry  out  such 
a  purpose  he  was  bound  to  give  us  a  corrupt  Leigh  Hunt: 
there  was  no  escape  from  it.  The  abyss  was  indicated  while 
the  book  was  in  progress.  He  was  genuinely  surprised,  and 
made  many  alterations,  but  it  was  too  late :  the  damage  was 
done.    It  was  the  old,  old  story : 

"Harm  is  wrought  by  want  of  thought, 
As  well  as  want  of  heart." 

Hunt  did  not  recognise  the  likeness.  It  was  left  to 
"friends"  to  point  it  out.  Dickens  was  more  hurt  than  his 
victim.  He  recognised  that  there  was  only  one  course  for 
him — full  and  frank  apology.     That  was  forthcoming,  and 


160  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

that  the  relations  of  the  two  men,  though  temporarily 
strained,  were  not  permanently  affected  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  Hunt  wrote  frequently  for  Household  Words.  In  the 
very  first  number  he  had  a  poem,  "Abraham,  the  Fire-Wor- 
shipper," and  in  1853-4  there  appeared  the  papers  now 
known  as  "The  Old  Court  Suburb." 


CHAPTER  XXV 

CAPTAIN    MAEUYAT 

We  have  it  on  Forster's  authority  that  among  the  first  in 
Dickens's  liking  in  these  days  was  Captain  Marryat.  Un- 
fortunately their  friendship  covered  but  a  brief  span  of 
years.  It  did  not  start  before  1837,  for  certain,  jjrobably 
not  before  1839,  and  the  gallant  sailor  and  brilliant  novelist 
died  in  1848.  The  two  men  had  a  high  regard  for  each 
other's  genius,  and  in  temperament  they  were  not  unlike. 
Both  had  "roughed  it" — though  in  different  ways — both 
had  met  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  their  experi- 
ence of  the  world  had  left  them  without  any  traces  of  cyni- 
cism ;  both  were  true  humorists ;  both  were  at  their  best  in 
the  social  circle.  Forster,  recording  Dickens's  delight  in 
children's  parties,  says :  "There  was  no  one  who  approached 
him  on  these  occasions,  excepting  only  our  attached  friend 
Captain  Marryat,  who  had  a  frantic  delight  in  dancing, 
especially  with  children,  of  whom  and  whose  enjoyments  he 
was  as  fond  as  it  became  so  thoroughly  good-hearted  a 
man  to  be." 

Marryat's  earliest  reference  to  Dickens  occurs  in  reply  to 
an  objection  that  had  been  taken  to  one  of  his  stories  ap- 
pearing in  serial  form  in  the  "Era." 

"I  would  rather"  (he  said)  "write  for  the  instruc- 
tion, or  even  the  amusement  of  the  poor  than  for  the 
amusement  of  the  rich ;  and  I  would  sooner  raise  a  smile 
or  create  an  interest  in  the  honest  mechanic  or  agri- 
cultural labourer  who  requires  relaxation  than  I  would 
contribute  to  dispel  the  ennui  of  thos'i  who  loll  on  their 
couches  and  wonder  in  their  idleness  what  they  shall  do 
next.  Is  the  rich  man  only  to  be  amused?  Are  mirth 
and  laughter  to  be  made  a  luxury  confined  to  the  upper 
classes  and  denied  to  the  honest  and  hard-working 
161 


162  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

artisan?  I  have  lately  given  my  aid  to  cKeaper  litera- 
ture, and  I  consider  that  the  most  decided  step  which 
I  have  taken  is  the  insertion  of  this  tale  in  a  weekly 
newspaper — by  which  means  it  will  be  widely  dissemi- 
nated among  the  lower  classes,  who,  until  lately  (and  the 
chief  credit  of  the  alteration  is  due  to  Mr.  Dickens), 
had  hardly  an  idea  of  such  recreation." 

The  man  who  spoke  there  would  be  likely  to  have  much  in 
common  with  Dickens.  They  met  frequently,  and  Marryat 
was  always  a  welcome  member  of  the  early  Dickens  circle. 
In  1842  he  presided  at  the  dinner  at  Greenwich  at  which 
Dickens  was  welcomed  home  from  America  by  a  few  of  his 
more  intimate  friends.  Probably  the  fact  that  he,  too,  had 
toured  America  and  had  had  very  much  the  same  experi- 
ence as  Dickens  earned  this  honour  for  him. 

In  1842  Dickens  gave  much  offence  in  America  on  account 
of  his  stand  on  the  copyright  question.  I  think  it  is  very 
probable  that  Marryat  influenced  him  on  this  point.  He 
had  spent  a  couple  of  years  (1837-9)  in  America,  and  had 
given  offence  in  the  same  way.  It  was  a  very  important 
principle  that  was  at  stake.  Marryat  had  fought  for  it 
bravely ;  Dickens  could  not  but  know  that  his  Influence  was 
even  greater  than  his  friend's,  and  he  took  up  the  fight.  We 
have  no  evidence  that  Marryat  did  influence  him,  but  I  think 
there  can  be  very  little  doubt  on  the  point.  Marryat  greatly 
enjoyed  Dickens's  tilt  at  our  cousins  in  ATuerican  Notes. 
"It  gives  me  great  pleasure,"  we  find  Dickens  writing  to 
him  in  the  summer  of  1843,  "to  find  that  you  like  the  tick- 
ling. I  shall  go  in  again  before  I  have  done,  and  give  the 
eagle  a  final  poke  under  his  fifth  rib." 

Marryat  settled  at  Langham  in  1843,  and  thenceforward 
he  took  his  place  in  the  old  circle  but  rarely.  He  became 
absorbed  in  farming — which  proved  an  expensive  hobby — 
and  it  was  very  difficult  indeed  to  draw  him  to  London. 
Stanfield  tried  in  1844 : 

"Charles  Dickens  is  about  to  leave  England  with  his 
family  for  one  whole  year  to  visit  foreign  parts,  previ- 
ous to  which  we  are  about  to  bestow  on  the  said  Charles 
Dickens  a  complimentary  dinner  to  be  eaten  at  Green- 


CAPTAIN  MARRYAT  163 

wich.  Now,  Forster,  Maclise,  and  myself,  who  have  the 
arrangement  of  the  above  dinner,  would  be  very  glad 
indeed  if  you  could,  and  would  make  one  amongst  us 
on  that  occasion.  I  wish  you  would!  I  really  think 
a  run  up  to  town  would  do  you  good;  at  any  rate,  it 
would  rejoice  us  more  to  have  you  with  us  on  the 
present  occasion." 

But  it  was  "no  go";  even  such  an  invitation  as  that 
could  not  tempt  him.  A  little  later,  however,  he  ran  up  to 
town,  and  Dickens  was  among  the  f.-^^'^s  he  visited.  At  the 
end  of  the  year  Forster  pressed  him  to  come  up  for  the  forth- 
coming theatricals,  but  the  reply  was,  "I  dare  not." 

In  1843,  however,  he  was  happy  in  the  anticipation  of  a 
visit  from  some  of  these  old  friends.  Writing  to  Stanfield, 
he  says: 

"Although  I  shall  be  in  town  at  the  end  of  this 
month,  I  write  to  you  that  we  may  not  be  disappointed 
in  our  intended  party  down  here  in  September,  and  I 
think  you  had  better  at  once  make  the  arrangements 
as  to  the  time  of  coming  so  as  to  meet  the  wishes  of 
all.  I  believe  we  have  only  mentioned  Landseer,  Mac- 
lise, Dickens,  Forster,  and  yourself.  Are  there  any 
more  that  you  would  wish  to  add  to  the  list.?" 

He  evidently  also  wrote  to  Dickens,  for  on  September  6 
we  find  the  latter  writing  to  him  from  Broadstairs:  "I 
fear  I  cannot  say  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  sooner  than 
the  third  week  in  October  for  the  pleasures  of  Langham, 
but,  please  God,  I  shall  be  ready  about  the  19th  or  the 
20th.  I  will  make  this  known  to  Maclise  and  Forster,  and 
we  will  send  you  a  threatening  letter  when  the  time  ap- 
proaches." A  month  later — on  October  9 — Marryat  writes 
to  Forster  to  know  if  the  friends  are  coming.  There  is  no 
record  as  to  whether  the  visit  ever  took  place. 

Marryat  died  in  1848.  When  the  end  was  very  near,  the 
fact  was  not  recognised  by  his  friends.  He  was  at  Brighton 
in  March;  so  was  Dickens,  who  wrote  to  hira  the  following 
letter : 


1G4  THE   DICICEXS   CIRCLE 

"I  was  coming  round  to  see  you  this  morning,  but 
feel  myself  obliged  to  go  to  London  by  the  two  o'clock 
train  with  no  time  for  preparation.  As  I  shall  not  be 
back  until  to-morrow  night,  and  as  I  fear  you  -will  have 
left  in  the  interval,  I  write  this  to  say  that  Kate  and  I 
were  delighted  to  find  you  had  been  here  and  were 
so  happily  recovered  from  your  illness.  I  assure  you, 
my  dear  fellow.  I  was  heartily  rejoiced  and  drank  your 
health  with  all  honours.  Do  write  me  word  in  Devon- 
shire Terrace  some  fortnight  hence,  where  you  are  and 
how  you  are ;  and  if  you  be  within  reach  let  us  fore- 
gather." 

But  lie  had  not  recovered  from  his  illness,  and  there  were 
to  be  no  more  foregatherings.  In  August  Marryat  entered 
into  the  higher  life.  His  daughter  tells  us  that  as  he  lay 
dying,  in  his  semi-conscious  condition  produced  by  constant 
doses  of  morphia,  "he  held  imaginary  conversations  with 
Dickens,  or  Bulwer,  or  some  of  his  old  shipmates." 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


CHAELES    KNIGHT 


In  the  Shakespeare  Society  at  this  time  Dickens  was 
forming  other  friendships  no  less  notable  than  those  we  have 
already  considered.  Talf  ourd  and  MacKse  were  members ; 
so  were  Thackeray  and  McCready,  Jerrold  and  Stanfield, 
Cattermole  and  the  Landseers — two  of  them,  at  any  rate, 
Charles  and  Tom.  Others  were  Frank  Stone,  a  well-beloved 
friend,  B.  W.  Procter,  Charles  Knight,  and  Laman  Blanch- 
ard,  Jerrold's  friend.  Of  the  last  named  we  will  speak 
presently,  but  the  other  two  may  well  find  their  places  here. 

Charles  Knight — "Many-sided  and  true-hearted  Charles 
Knight,"  as  Forster  called  him — was  a  much  older  man  than 
Dickens — he  was  editing  a  newspaper  at  Windsor  when 
Dickens  was  born — and  they  had  been  acquainted  from  the 
earliest  years  of  Dickens's  authorship.  I  cannot  find  when 
they  first  met :  Knight  himself  could  not  recall.  But  he  does 
recall  that  in  1836  Dickens's  uncle,  Mr.  Barrow,  who  was 
the  conductor  of  "The  Mirror  of  Parliament,"  sometimes 
meeting  him  at  the  printing  office  of  Mr.  Clowes,  would  tell 
him  of  his  clever  young  relative  who  was  the  best  reporter 
in  the  Gallery.  He  tells  us  also  that  he  and  Dickens  were 
on  tolerably  familiar  terms  in  the  days  of  the  Shakespeare 
Society.  He  says  that  the  Society  comprised  too  many 
members  for  readings  and  discussions  as  was  originally  in- 
tended, and  its  chance  of  promoting  the  friendly  con- 
vi-\-iality  of  men  of  congenial  tastes  was  very  soon  destroyed. 
And  then  he  describes  the  following  incident  which  brought 
about  the  dissolution  of  the  Society: 

"There  was  a  very  full  attendance  at  a  dinner  at 

which  Mr.   Dickens  presided.     His   friend,  Mr.  John 

Forster,  was  at  his  side.     I  sat  at  a  side  table  with  a 

remarkable-looking  young  man  opposite  to  me  who  I 

165 


166  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

was  told  was  the  Michael  Angelo  Titmarsh  of  'Fraser's 
Magazine.'  Mr.  Forster  rose  to  propose  a  toast.  He 
was  proceeding  with  that  force  and  fluency  which  he 
always  possessed  when  there  were  some  interruptions 
by  the  cracking  of  nuts  and  jingling  of  glasses  amongst 
the  knot  of  young  barristers,  who  were  probably  fas- 
tidious as  to  every  style  of  eloquence  but  the  forensic. 
The  speaker  expressed  himself  angrily ;  there  were  re- 
torts of  a  very  unpleasant  character.  The  Chairman 
in  vain  tried  to  enforce  order;  but  'the  fun,'  if  fun  it 
could  be  called,  'grew  fast  and  furious.'  Previous  to 
the  dinner,  Laman  Blanchard  .  .  .  had  asked  me  to 
propose  the  health  of  the  Chairman.  During  a  lull 
in  the  storm  I  was  enabled  to  do  so,  saying  something 
about  throwing  oil  upon  the  waves.  But  it  was  all  in 
vain.  Mr.  Dickens  at  length  abandoned  the  chair,  and 
there  was  an  end  of  the  Shakespeare  Club." 

At  this  time  there  was  but  a  bare  acquaintance.  We  find, 
'however,  a  facetious  reference  to  Knight  in  the  amusing 
letter  that  Dickens  wrote  to  Forster  announcing  the  death 
of  his  raven :  "I  am  not  wholly  free  from  suspicion  of  poison. 
A  malicious  butcher  has  been  heard  to  say  that  he  would 
'do'  for  him:  his  plea  was  that  he  would  not  be  molested  in 
taking  orders  down  the  mews  by  any  bird  that  wore  a  tail. 
Other  persons  have  also  been  heard  to  threaten:  among 
others,  Charles  Knight,  who  has  just  started  a  weekly  pub- 
lication price  fourpcnce:  Barnahy  being,  as  you  know, 
threepence."  Wliich  reminds  us  that  Knight  was  the  pioneer 
of  cheap  literature  for  the  masses,  and  that  in  his  very  valu- 
able work  in  this  direction  he  had,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, the  earnest  sympathy  of  Dickens.  In  1844  he  com- 
menced the  publication  of  "Knight's  Weekly  Volumes,"  and 
a  copy  of  the  prospectus,  entitled  "Book  Clubs  for  all 
Readers,"  he  sent  to  Dickens.  The  scheme  was  to  estab- 
lish a  cheap  book  club — to  publish  high-class  works  at  low- 
est possible  prices,  and,  by  a  system  of  small  weekly  con- 
tributions, to  enable  families  to  acquire  good  hbraries. 
Dickens's  reply  was :  "I  had  already  seen  your  prospectus, 
and  if  I  can  be  of  the  feeblest  use  in  advancing  a  project  so 
intimately   connected   with   an   end   on   which  my   heart   is 


CHARLES  KNIGHT  167 

set — the  liberal  education  of  the  people — I  shall  be  sin- 
cerely glad.     All  good  wishes  and  success  attend  you." 

In  184-8  the  two  men  were  much  more  closely  associated 
than  hitherto.  In  the  announcement  of  the  amateur  theatri- 
cals organised  by  Dickens  and  his  friends  it  was  set  forth 
that  the  Directors  of  General  Arrangements  would  be  Mr. 
John  Payne  Collier,  Mr.  Charles  Knight,  and  Mr.  Peter 
Cunningham.  When  the  company  went  on  tour  Knight  and 
Cunningham  accompanied  them.  During  the  tour  Knight 
inevitably  became  more  intimate  with  Dickens,  but  still,  he 
says,  they  rarely  met  in  society.  It  was  HouseJiold  Words 
that  brought  them  into  close  relationship.  A  week  or  so 
before  the  appearance  of  the  first  number,  Dickens  wrote  to 
Knight  inviting  him  to  become  a  contributor.  The  invitation 
was  accepted,  and  from  that  time  dated  a  close  friendship 
between  the  men,  a  friendship  so  earnest  that  for  years 
Dickens  never  failed  to  dine  with  Knight  on  the  latter's 
birthday.  In  several  of  Dickens's  letters  we  find  references 
to  this  custom,  whilst  there  can  be  no  mistaking  the  hearti- 
ness of  invitations.  Indeed,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  they 
were  true  and  fast  friends,  as  the  Editors  of  the  Letters 
record.     In  July  1851  Dickens  wrote  from  Broadstairs : 

"You  say  you  are  coming  down  to  look  for  a  place 
this  week.  Now,  Jerrold  says  he  is  coming  on  Thursday 
by  the  cheap  express  at  half-past  twelve,  to  return 
with  me  for  the  play  early  on  Monday  morning.  Can't 
you  make  that  a  holiday  too?  I  have  promised  him  our 
only  spare  bed,  but  we'll  find  you  a  bed  hard  by,  and 
shall  be  delighted  to  'eat  and  drink  you,'  as  an  American 
once  wrote  to  me.  We  will  make  expeditions  to  Heme 
Bay,  Canterbury,  where  not?  and  drink  deep  draughts 
of  fresh  air.  Come!  They  are  beginning  to  cut  the 
corn.  You  will  never  see  the  country  so  pretty.  If 
you  stay  in  town  these  days,  you'll  do  nothing.  Say 
you'll  come!" 

I  do  not  know  whether  that  particular  invitation  was 
accepted,  but  we  do  know  that  in  this  year  Knight  spent  a 
great  deal  of  time  with  Dickens,  especially  at  Broadstairs. 
The   reference  in  this   letter  to  the   play   reminds   us   that 


168  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Knight  was  one  of  the  "splendid  strollers."  In  1848,  we 
have  seen,  he  was  one  of  the  organisers  of  the  theatricals. 
In  1851  he  was  one  of  the  players.  He  was  invited  by 
Dickens  to  play  Hodge  in  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem"  in  the 
Guild  of  Literature  and  Art  performances.  Referring  to 
this,  Knight  says :  "For  myself,  I  should  have  been  well  con- 
tented with  'Hodge,  the  merry  servant.'  But  my  profes- 
sional tastes  and  consequent  histrionic  capacity  for  playing 
the  part  of  a  scheming  publisher  of  the  days  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole  were  considered,  and  I  had  to  rehearse  the  part  of 
Jacob  Tonson,  the  bookseller." 

In  1864  Knight  was  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  when  his  birth- 
day came  round,  and  Dickens  wrote  to  him:  "We  knew  of 
your  being  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  had  said  that  we  should 
have  this  year  to  drink  your  health  in  your  absence.  Rely 
on  my  being  always  ready  and  happy  to  renew  our  old  friend- 
ship in  the  flesh.  In  the  spirit  it  needs  no  renewal,  because 
it  has  no  break." 

Knight  contributed  regularly  to  Household  Words,  and  we 
find  Dickens,  in  his  letters,  frequently  expressing  his  appre- 
ciation of  his  friend's  work.  His  contributions  included  a 
series  entitled  "Shadows,"  and  there  are  several  references  to 
these — always  appreciative  references,  but  often  containing 
helpful  criticisms  and  suggestions. 

I  doubt  whether  Knight  was  not  of  a  rather  too  serious 
cast  of  mind  to  be  entirely  at  home  with  Dickens  at  all  times, 
but  the  two  men  had  much  in  common.  They  were  both 
strong  believers  and  advocates  of  the  better  education  of  the 
people.  Knight's  life  was  spent  in  bringing  general  knowl- 
edge and  the  best  literature  within  reach  of  the  masses.  Many 
men  who  have  rendered  less  service  to  their  fellows  and  to 
human  progress  are  better  known  to  posterity,  but  he  was 
in  the  truest  sense  a  doer  of  good.  Dickens's  services  to  man- 
kind are  too  widely  acknowledged  to  need  emphasis  here.  He 
served  his  fellows  in  many  ways,  and  not  least  in  his  advo- 
cacy of  education  for  the  people.  Here  the  two  men  had  a 
common  ground  of  sympathy,  so  that  their  friendship  was, 
after  all,  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

"barey  Cornwall"  and  his  daughter 

In  his  book  "John  Forster  and  his  Friendships,"  Mr.  R. 
Renton  quotes  a  letter  from  B.  W.  Procter  to  Forster,  dated 
1853,  and  says  that  it  was  written  quite  early  in  their  friend- 
ship. That  is  obviously  incorrect.  Forster  himself  tells  us 
that.  Procter  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  members  of 
the  Shakespeare  Society  which  broke  up  in  1839,  or  there- 
abouts, and  of  which,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Forster  was 
a  leading  spirit.  Nay,  they  had  both  been  friends  of  Lamb, 
who  had  died  in  1834,  so  that  Forster's  friendship  with 
Procter  must  have  been  one  of  the  earliest  he  formed,  dating 
from  at  least  fourteen  years,  and  probably  twenty  years, 
earlier  than  the  year  which  Mr.  Renton  describes  as  "quite 
early  in  their  friendship."  We  may  take  it  as  quite  certain 
that  Dickens  came  to  know  Procter  through  Forster.  And 
from  the  first  the  novelist  and  the  poet  were  on  the  best  of 
terms.  It  was  natural.  Procter  was  a  peculiarly  lovable 
man,  with  a  peculiar  gentleness,  "childlike,  without  being 
childish,  with  a  keen,  wholesome  enjoyment  of  wholesome 
things,  and  an  unfailing  buoyancy  of  spirit."  Such  a  man 
could  not  but  have  a  strong  attraction  for  Dickens. 

From  the  beginning  he  loved  the  company  of  his  friend, 
who,  in  the  'forties,  was  one  of  the  innermost  circle  with 
Forster  and  Maclise  and  Ainsworth.  Procter  was  one  of  the 
little  company  at  the  Greenwich  dinner  in  1842,  and  until 
he  grew  too  old  (he  was  twenty-five  years  older  than 
Dickens)  they  had  frequent  social  meetings. 

For  Household  Words  and  All  the  Year  Round  he  wrote 
a^  great  deal,  and  Dickens  valued  his  contributions  very 
highly  indeed.  Chief  among  thesp  contributions  were  his 
"Songs  of  the  Trades,"  to  which  Dickens  often  refers  in  his 
letters.     For  instance,  in  December  1858  he  writes : 


170  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"A  thousand  thanks  for  the  little  song.  I  am 
charmed  with  it,  and  shall  be  delighted  to  brighten 
Household  Words  with  such  a  wise  and  genial  light.  I 
no  more  believe  that  j^our  poetical  faculty  has  gone  by 
than  I  believe  that  you  have  yourself  passed  to  the  better 
land.  You  and  it  will  travel  thither  in  company,  rely 
upon  it.  So  I  still  hope  to  hear  more  of  the  trade-songs, 
and  to  learn  that  the  blacksmith  has  hammered  out  no 
end  of  iron  into  good  fashion  of  verse,  like  a  cunning 
workman,  as  I  know  him  of  old  to  be." 

And  in  March  1859  he  writes:  "I  think  the  songs  are 
simply  admirable!  And  I  have  no  doubt  of  this  being  a 
popular  feature  in  All  the  Year  Round." 

As  Procter  grew  old  Dickens  saw  less  and  less  of  him,  but 
the  friendship  remained  as  deep  as  ever,  and  in  1854  it  was 
peculiarly  sweetened  by  the  discovery  that  the  "Miss  Mary 
Berwick"  who  had  contributed  verses  to  Household  Words 
^hich  had  won  Dickens's  unstinted  praise  was  really  his  old 
friend's  daughter,  Adelaide,  whom  he  had  known  from  her 
•childhood.  That  story  does  not  need  to  be  retold  here.  It 
^vas  told  by  Dickens  himself  in  the  introduction  he  wrote 
ito  her  "Legends  and  Lyrics,"  published  shortly  after  her 
ieath.  She  had  said  at  home:  "If  I  send  him,  in  my  own 
aame,  verses  that  he  does  not  honestly  like,  either  it  will  be 
yery  painful  to  him  to  return  them,  or  he  will  print  them  for 
papa's  sake,  and  not  for  their  own.  So  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  to  take  my  chance  fairly  with  the  unknown  volunteers." 
That  was  in  the  spring  of  1853.  Dickens  liked  the  verses 
ifor  their  own  sake,  and  all  contributions  that  "]Miss  Mary 
Berwick"  cared  to  send  were  gladly  welcomed.  In  that  same 
year,  1853,  she  was  invited  to  contribute  to  the  Christmas 
number,  and  she  responded  with  "The  Angel's  Story."  In 
the  following  year,  to  The  Seven  Poor  Travellers  she  con- 
tributed the  third  traveller's  story. 

"Happening,"  says  Dickens,  "to  be  going  to  dine  that  day 
with  an  old  and  dear  friend,  distinguished  in  literature  as 
Barry  Cornwall,  I  took  with  me  an  early  proof  of  that  num- 
ber, and  remarked,  as  I  laid  it  on  the  drawing-room  table, 
that  it  contained  a  very  pretty  poem  written  by  a  certain 
Miss  Berwick.     Next  day  brought  me  the  disclosure  that  I 


"BARRY  CORNWALL"  171 

had  so  spoken  of  the  poem  to  the  mother  of  its  writer,  in 
its  writer's  presence;  that  I  had  no  such  correspondent  in 
existence  as  Miss  Berwick;  and  that  the  name  had  been  as- 
sumed by  Barry  Cornwall's  eldest  daughter,  Miss  Adelaide 
Anne  Procter."  The  remainder  of  the  introduction  is  a  very 
beautiful  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  pure  and  beautiful  life. 
Until  her  death  in  1864,  Adelaide  Procter  continued  to  con- 
tribute to  Household  Words  and  All  the  Year  Round. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


FRANK  STONE  AND  HIS  SON 


"My  father  must  have  been  a  remarkable  man,"  said  Mr. 
Marcus  Stone  to  me,  as,  seated  in  his  studio  one  afternoon, 
he  was  recalling  for  my  benefit  the  days  when  he  was  inti- 
mate with  Dickens,  and  with  nearly  everybody  who  was  any- 
body in  the  literary  and  artistic  London  of  the  mid- Victorian 
period.  "Yes,"  he  said,  in  a  tone  of  affectionate  remem- 
brance, "a  remarkable  man.  I  often  think  of  it.  He  was 
a  Manchester  man  but  moderately  educated,  a  moderate 
artist  who  never  made  very  much  headway  in  his  profession ; 
yet,  within  two  years  of  his  coming  to  London  an  utterly 
obscure  man,  he  was  the  intimate  of  many  of  the  most  famous 
men  of  the  time." 

Frank  Stone  is  remembered  to-day  chiefly  as  the  father 
of  Marcus  Stone,  but  he  must  have  been  a  man  of  marked 
individuality  and  great  personal  charm.  He  had  not  the 
knack  of  making  money,  but  he  had  something  much  better, 
the  knack  of  making  friends.  And  one  of  the  most  valued 
friends  he  ever  made  was  Charles  Dickens.  There  was  a 
great  intimacy  and  genuine  affection  between  him  and  the 
novelist,  which  lasted  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  without 
interruption.  It  is  probable  that  it  was  the  Shakespeare 
Society  that  brought  them  together :  ^  anyhow  they  met  when 
Picl-wick  was  still  running  its  course.  And,  say  the  Editors 
of  Dickens's  Letters,  Stone  was  especially  included  in  the 
category  of  Dickens's  most  affectionate  and  intimate  friends. 
They  spent  many  a  holiday  together  at  Broadstairs  and 
elsewhere,  and  it  was  at  Bonchurch  in  1849  that  the  artist 
painted  a  portrait  of  Sydney  Smith  Haldimand  Dickens,  then 
two  and  a  half  years  old,  in  which,  says  Forster,  he  very 

I  Stone  was  hon.  sec,  and  the  minute-book  is  still  in  the  possession  of  one 
of  his  sons. 

172 


FRANK  STONE  AND  HIS  SON        173 

happily  caught  "a  strange  little  weird,  yet  most  attractive 
look  in  his  large  wondering  eyes." 

For  some  time  Stone  occupied  a  portion  of  Tavistock 
House,  Tavistock  Square,  as  a  studio,  his  family  living  in 
the  country.  In  1851  he  brought  his  family  to  London,  and 
they  went  to  live  in  a  smaller  house  in  the  same  square, 
Dickens  taking  Tavistock  House.  Henceforth,  until 
Dickens  moved  to  Gadshill,  the  two  families  were  near  and 
intimate  neighbours. 

Stone  was  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  amateur  the- 
atricals— "one  of  the  leading  heavy  men,"  as  his  son  puts  it. 
He  played  Justice  Clement  in  "Every  Man  in  his  Humour" 
at  the  Royalty  Theatre  in  1845.  Two  years  later  he  took 
part  in  the  performances  in  aid  of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John 
Poole.  He  was  again  prominent  in  the  performances  of 
1848,  but  this  time  he  played  George  Downright  in  Ben 
Jonson's  comedy.  He  played  the  same  part  at  Knebworth 
in  November  1850,  and  in  the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art 
performances  in  the  following  year  he  appeared  as  the  Duke 
of  Middlesex  in  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem,"  whilst  in  "Mr. 
Nightingale's  Diary"  he  was  Mr.  Nightingale.  During  the 
rehearsals  Dickens  wrote  to  Lytton: 

".  .  .  The  Duke  comes  out  the  best  man  in  the  play. 
I  am  happy  to  report  to  you  that  Stone  does  the  hon- 
ourable manly  side  of  that  pride  inexpressibly  better 
than  I  could  have  supposed  possible  in  him.  The  scene 
where  he  makes  reparation  to  the  slandered  woman  is 
certain  to  be  an  effect.  It  is  not  a  jest  upon  the  order  of 
Dukes,  but  a  great  tribute  to  them.  ...  I  see,  in  the 
Duke,  the  most  estimable  character  in  the  piece.  .  .  . 
The  first  time  that  scene  with  Hardman  was  seriously 
done,  it  made  an  effect  on  the  company  that  quite  sur- 
prised and  delighted  me;  and  whenever  and  wherever 
it  is  done  .    ,    .  the  result  will  be  the  same." 

Stone  had  the  honour  of  doing  three  illustrations  for  The 
Haunted  Man — "Milly  and  the  Old  Man";  "Milly  and  the 
Student" ;  and  "Milly  and  the  Children."  When  he  submitted 
his  rough  sketch  for  the  first  of  these  illustrations,  Dickens 
wrote  to  him: 


174  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

*'We  are  unanimous. 

"The  drawing  of  Milly  on  the  chair  is  charming.  I 
cannot  tell  you  how  much  the  little  composition  and 
expression  please  me.     Do  that,  by  all  means.   .    .    . 

"I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  you  have  your  eye  on 
her  in  the  students'  room.  You  will  really,  pictorially, 
make  the  little  woman  whom  I  love." 

These  were  the  only  illustrations  that  Stone  did  for  his 
friend's  books,  but  he  designed  the  frontispiece  for  the  first 
Cheap  Edition  of  Martin  Chuzzlewit  in  1849,  which  shows 
Mark  Tapley  on  his  sick-bed.  He  also  did  one  or  two  pic- 
tures of  characters,  in  addition.  He  was  commissioned  by 
the  novelist  to  paint  a  picture  of  'Tilda  Price,  which  picture 
in  1870  fetched  £42.  He  also  did  pictures  of  Kate  Nickleby 
and  Madeline  Bray  which  were  engraved  by  Finder,  and  pub- 
lished by  Chapman  and  Hall  in  1848. 

Frank  Stone  died  suddenly  in  1859,  to  the  very  deep  grief 
of  Dickens.  He  did  not  leave  any  very  substantial  worldly 
inheritance,  but,  said  his  son,  Marcus,  to  the  Boz  Club  a 
few  years  ago,  "he  gave  me  the  splendid  inheritance  of  the 
friendship  of  Charles  Dickens — a  more  precious  inheritance 
than  the  wealth  of  a  millionaire."  Marcus  Stone  was,  I  am 
very  certain,  Dickens^s  favourite  among  all  the  young  men 
that  worshipped  him  in  the  last  decade  or  so  of  his  life.  The 
relations  between  them  were,  indeed,  almost  those  of  father 
and  son.  Curiously  enough,  though  his  father  had  been  in- 
timate with  Dickens  before  Marcus  was  born,  the  son  was 
ten  years  old  before  he  met  the  great  man.  In  his  address 
to  the  Boz  Club  in  1910  he  recalled  the  first  meeting: 

"I  had  only  just  come  to  live  in  London  with  my 
father,  and  had  the  blessed  privilege  of  rummaging  in 
his  studio.  ....  There  was  a  window  in  the  studio,  and 
near  that  stood  a  screen.  One  day  I  went  behind  the 
screen  and  looked  into  the  garden,  and  there  I  saw  a 
gentleman  and  two  ladies.  They  were  looking  up  at 
the  house.  Then  I  was  fetched,  and  I  remember  going 
'downstairs  and  being  presented  to  the  ladies  and  gen- 
tleman, and  being  ashamed  of  a  very  black  pair  of  hands 
which  were   grasped  by   that  blessed,  noble,   generous 


.a 

^  -2 


5f^ 


FRANK  STONE  AND  HIS  SON        175 

hand  of  Charles  Dickens.  That  was  the  first  time  I  saw 
him,  when  I  was  ten  years  old.  And  from  that  time  he 
was  constantly  in  my  field  of  vision." 

Marcus  Stone  was  a  very  precocious  boy ;  a  bright,  intelli- 
gent child ;  and  it  was  not  long  after  this  that  he  did  his  first 
Dickens  illustration.  He  drew  a  picture  of  Poor  Jo,  and 
while  he  was  working  on  it  Dickens  saw  it.  "That's  very 
good,"  said  the  novelist.  "You  must  give  that  to  me  when 
it  is  done."  So  he  did;  and  nearly  eighteen  months  later 
he  received  from  Dickens  a  copy  of  A  Child's  History  of 
England,  with  this  letter: 

"My  dear  Marcus, 

"You  made  an  excellent  sketch  from  a  book  of 
mine  which  I  have  received  (and  have  preserved)  with 
great  pleasure.  Will  you  accept  from  me  in  remem- 
brance of  it  THIS  little  book.?  I  believe  it  to  be  true, 
though  it  may  be  sometimes  not  as  genteel  as  history 
has  a  habit  of  being." 

That  book  is  to-day  the  artist's  most  cherished  possession. 

From  the  beginning  the  boy  was  a  warm  favourite  with 
the  novelist,  whose  house  was  a  second  home  to  him.  After 
his  father's  death  Dickens's  interest  in  him  deepened,  and 
Gadshill  was  Liberty  Hall  to  him.  He  was,  as  he  put  it  to 
me,  a  "sort  of  extra  son."  As  he  was  growing  up  he  stood, 
in  a  sense,  between  the  novelist's  eldest  and  younger  sons. 
Charles  was  only  three  years  older  than  he,  but  he  married 
and  left  home  very  young ;  the  other  boys  were  younger  than 
he.  We  know  what  a  difference  a  couple  of  years  will  make 
between  boys  in  their  teens ;  but  apart  from  that,  Marcus 
Stone  was  older  than  his  years.  He  was  exhibiting  at  the 
Royal  Academy  v/hen  he  was  but  seventeen ;  he  was  only  nine- 
teen when  his  father  died,  and  he  was  called  upon  to  battle 
with  the  world.  Thus,  though  so  young,  he  was  a  real  com- 
panion to  the  novelist.  He  had  the  freedom  of  Gadshill: 
that  is  to  say,  he  was  told  that  he  could  come  whenever  he 
liked  and  stay  just  as  long  as  he  liked.  He  did  not  avail 
himself  of  the  privilege  so  often  as  he  would  have  wished, 
because  he  so  early  achieved  success  in  his  profession  and 


176  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

was  a  very  busy  man,  "but,"  he  told  me,  "I  spent,  I  should 
think,  quite  a  month  in  his  house  every  year,  and  I  was 
ahvays  there  at  Christmas  for  about  a  fortnight.  I  saw 
him  as  nobody  else  saw  him.  I  was,  so  to  speak,  nobody  in 
the  house.  I  came  and  went  as  I  listed,  and  I  saw  the  man 
himself.  However  intimate  one  may  be  with  a  guest,  you 
know,  there  is  inevitably  some  degree  of  self-consciousness. 
I  was  a  nobody — that  is,  just  a  young  man  that  did  not  count 
as  a  guest  at  all.  I  was  one  of  the  family.  Thus  I  saw 
Charles  Dickens  as  nobody  else  saw  him.  I  saw  him  living  his 
own,  everyday,  actual  life,  and  as  an  observant  boy,  and  as 
a  mature  man,  I  saw  him.  I  used  to  take  any  work  I  could 
carry  with  me,  and  do  it  at  Gadshill.  I  just  'walked  in,'  and 
was  as  much  at  home  as  one  of  his  sons." 

"What  sort  of  man  was  Dickens.?"  I  asked  the  famous 
artist,  and  I  am  not  likely  to  forget  the  fervent  earnestness 
with  which  he  answered  me. 

"He  was  quite  the  best  man  I  ever  knew.  Yes" — 
and  he  gripped  my  arm  and  looked  me  earnestly  in  the 
eyes — "the  best  man  I  ever  knew.  He  was  such  a  good 
man  that  you  put  your  greatness  in  the  second  place 
when  you  knew  him.  He  occupied  himself  daily  in  some 
sort  of  work  for  somebody.  The  amount  of  work  that 
he  did,  the  amount  of  money  that  he  took  out  of  his 
pocket,  was  perfectly  amazing.  But  the  personal  trouble 
that  he  took  for  people  who  had  no  sort  of  claim  upon 
him !  He  was  the  most  compassionate  creature  that  ever 
lived — in  fact,  almost  to  a  ludicrous  extent  at  times. 
He  forgave  when  he  ought  not  to  have  done  so,  and  gave 
very  often  where  he  ought  to  have  withheld." 

I  realised  then  the  truth  of  what  he  said  to  the  Boz  Club: 
"The  very  mention  of  the  name  of  Charles  Dickens  is  always 
followed  in  my  case  with  a  certain  thrill  of  inward  emotion." 
If  ever  one  man  loved  another,  Marcus  Stone  loved  Charles 
Dickens.  He  asserts — and  none  need  doubt  that  it  is  true — 
that  Dickens  was  the  chief  formative  influence  in  his  life. 

In  the  "Gad's  Hill  Gazette,"  that  entertaining  little  jour- 
nal printed  and  published  by  the  novelist's  boys,  Marcus 
Stone's  name  occurs  frequently.    There  are  several  references 


FRANK  STONE  AND  HIS  SON       177 

to  his  skill  at  billiards — which  remained  with  him  until  recent 
years,  when  his  sight  failed.  "Only  one  game  worthy  of  men- 
tion has  been  played  during  the  last  week,"  we  read  in  one 
place.  "This  was  a  game  between  Messrs.  M.  Stone  and  C. 
Dickens,  junr.  (chiefly  remarkable  for  the  large  scores  made 
by  the  former).  Mr.  Stone  began  the  game  by  giving  his 
opponent  a  miss,  which  made  a  difficult  score  for  the  latter: 
he  however  scored  2.  The  game  proceeded  slowly  till  the 
marker  called  24  (Mr.  Stone)  to  5.  Then  the  Champion 
made  a  break  of  51,  followed  by  another  of  24,  winning  the 
game  by  91."  In  the  number  dated  August  19,  1862,  we 
read:  "There  has  been  little  done  at  Gad's  Hill  during  the 
past  week,  as  the  weather  has  been  so  unpropitious.  In  con- 
sequence of  this,  Billiards  has  been  resorted  to,  in  which  Mr. 
M.  Stone  has  beaten  all  opponents."  Not  always,  however, 
did  he  triumph,  as  is  shown  by  the  following:  "On  Saturday 
evening  last  two  very  scientific  games  were  played  between 
M.  Stone,  Esqre.  (the  last  week's  champion),  and  C.  Fechter, 
Esqre.  The  former  was  the  favourite,  but  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  all,  he  was  beaten  easily  both  games." 

Another  interesting  fact  recorded  in  the  "Gazette"  is  that 
"Mr.  M.  Stone  has  just  completed  a  portrait  in  water-colours 
of  Mrs.  Charles  Collins.^  In  the  painting  of  this  little  work 
of  Art  there  is  a  pose  shown  which  is  very  creditable  to  the 
author,  and  the  portrait  also  is  very  like."  And  in  a  Sup- 
plement it  is  recorded:  "In  an  article  at  the  bottom  of 
Page  2,  we  omitted  to  mention  that  Mr.  M.  Stone  has  also 
painted  a  portrait  (in  water-colours)  of  Gad's  Hill  House." 
It  is  not  necessary  to  do  more  here  than  recall  the  fact 
that  Marcus  Stone  illustrated  Our  Mutual  Friend.  With 
the  question,  "Why  did  Dickens  drop  Phiz.'*"  I  have  already 
dealt  in  my  chapter  on  Phiz,  but  I  may  observe  that  Mr. 
Stone  confirmed  me  in  the  conclusions  at  which  I  arrived 
there.  There  was  no  quarrel  of  any  kind  whatsoever,  but 
Dickens  felt  that  Phiz's  work  was  no  longer  suitable.  It  had 
not  advanced  in  character  or  quality  since  Pickwick,  and 
Dickens  decided  to  drop  him  after  Little  Dorrit.  He  had 
no  successor  in  view,  but  between  Little  Dorrit  and  Our 
Mutual  Friend  Frank  Stone  died,  and  Dickens  saw  the  op- 

1  Kate  Dickens;  now  Mrs.  Perugim. 


178  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

portunity  of  helping  his  friend's  brilliant  son,  who  was  also 
his  friend.  "But,"  said  Mr.  Stone  to  me,  "I  want  to  be  very 
clear  on  this  point:  regard  for  me  or  interest  in  me  had 
absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  the  dropping  of  Browne.  I 
had  not  entered  his  head  when  he  decided  to  do  that.  The 
choice  of  me  may  have  been  actuated  to  some  extent  by  per- 
sonal feelings ;  on  that  I  cannot  speak ;  but  I  know  that  he 
had  never  even  thought  of  me  when  he  decided  to  drop  Phiz." 

It  should  also  be  recalled  here  that  we  are  indebted  to 
Marcus  Stone  for  Mr.  Venus.  Dickens  had  written  nearly 
three  numbers  of  Our  Mutual  Friend,"  when,  says  Forster, 
"upon  a  necessary  rearrangement  of  his  chapters,  he  had  to 
hit  upon  a  new  subject  for  one  of  them.  'While  I  was  con- 
sidering what  it  should  be,  Marcus,  who  has  done  an  excellent 
cover,  came  to  tell  me  of  an  extraordinary  trade  he  had 
found  out  through  one  of  his  painting  requirements.  I 
immediately  went  with  him  to  St.  Giles's,  to  look  at  the  place, 
and  found  what  you  will  see.'  It  was  the  establishment  of 
Mr.  Venus,  preserver  of  animals  and  birds,  and  articulator 
of  human  bones." 

It  is  worthy  of  recording  that  the  original  drawings  for 
Our  Mutual  Friend  were  subsequently  sold  for  £66.  Marcus 
Stone  also  did  the  following  illustrations  for  other  of 
Dickens's  works:  the  frontispiece  to  the  first  Cheap  Edition 
of  Little  Dorrit,  1861;  eight  illustrations  for  the  Library 
Edition  of  Great  Expectations,  1862 ;  four  for  the  Library 
Edition  of  Pictures  from  Italy,  1862;  four  for  the  Library 
Edition  of  American  Notes,  1862 ;  eight  for  the  Library 
Edition  of  A  Child's  History  of  England,  1862;  and  the 
frontispiece  for  the  first  Cheap  Edition  of  A  Tale  of  Two 
Cities,  1864. 

Marcus  Stone  naturally  had  a  part  in  the  children's  the- 
atricals. He  also  assisted  in  the  "grown-up  performances" 
at  Tavistock  House.  In  "The  Lighthouse"  he  played  the 
wind — off ! ;  in  "The  Frozen  Deep"  he  appeared  on  the 
stage,  but  had  only  one  word  to  say.  His  recollection  of 
those  happy  days  has  not  dimmed  with  the  passage  of  years. 
He  often  recalls  with  enjoyment  how  Thackeray  rolled  off  his 
chair  with  laughing  at  the  funniositics  of  one  of  the  juvenile 
comedians.     He  also  recalls  hearing  Lord  Campbell  remark 


FRANK  STONE  AND  HIS  SON       179 

that  he  would  rather  have  written  Pickwick  than  be  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England. 

In  conclusion,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  if  I  record  one 
story  that  he  told  me.  "I  heard  of  Thackeray's  death,"  he 
said,  "from  Charles  Dickens.  The  news  had  not  appeared  in 
the  moi'ning  papers.  It  was  Christmas  Eve,  and  I  was  going 
to  Gadshill  for  the  Christmas.  I  met  another  guest  in  the 
train — I  forget  who  it  was.  Dickens  was  at  the  station  to 
meet  us.  As  soon  as  I  saw  him,  I  knew  that  something  had 
cut  him  deeply.  I  went  up  to  him,  and  said,  'What  is  it.?' 
and  he  said,  in  a  breaking  voice,  'Thackeray  is  dead.'  I 
said,  'I  know  you  must  feel  it  very  deeply,  because  you  and 
he  were  not  on  friendly  terms.'  He  put  his  hand  on  my  arm, 
and  said,  so  earnestly,  'Thank  God,  my  boy,  we  were !'  And 
then  he  told  me  about  the  reconciliation  at  the  Athen?eum 
Club.  I  know  what  a  consolation  it  was  to  hira  to  think  of 
that  meeting  and  reconciliation." 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

SOME    LIMBS    OF    THE   LAW 

Surprising  indeed  would  it  have  been  if  Dickens  had  not 
numbered  among  his  friends  some  distinguished  limbs  of  the 
law.  None  of  our  novelists  knew  lawyers  and  lawyers'  clerks 
and  lawyers'  chambers  better  than  he  did.  He  laughed  at 
them  all,  and  he  laughed  still  more  loudly  and  very  much 
more  scornfully  at  the  law,  but  lawyers  as  a  class  have  a 
keener  sense  of  humour  than  most  other  classes,  and  from 
the  beginning  Dickens  was  a  great  favourite  with  them. 
Curiously  enough,  all  his  legal  friendships  were  formed  early 
in  his  career. 

Sir  Jonathan  Pollock,  who  eventually  became  Chief  Baron 
of  the  Exchequer,  was  one  of  these  early  friends.  In  his  ca- 
pacity as  judge  he  on  several  occasions  won  the  novelist's 
admiration.  Pollock  was  much  older  than  Dickens,  but  there 
was  a  strong  mutual  regard.  When  Dickens  died,  the  Baron 
described  him  as  "one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  hon- 
oured men  England  has  ever  produced;  in  whose  loss  every 
man  among  us  feels  that  he  has  lost  a  friend  and  instructor." 
With  the  son.  Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  there  was  also  a  pleas- 
ant friendship.  They  met  first  at  Broadstairs  in  1850,  and 
Pollock's  first  impression  of  Dickens's  delightful  manner  was 
confirmed  by  subsequent  friendly  intercourse.  It  is  rather 
curious  that  Dickens  should  not  have  met  the  son  much 
earlier,  but  once  they  knew  each  other  they  became  on  splen- 
did terms  and  saw  much  of  each  other. 

A  great  judge  to  whom  Dombcy  and  Son  made  a  special 
appeal  was  Lord  Denman — Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England. 
"Isn't  Bunsby  good?"  he  exclaimed  across  the  table  at  Tal- 
fourd's  house  to  a  fellow-guest.  But  he  had  been  attracted 
to  Boz  in  the  very  beginning,  and  we  have  Miss  Edgeworth's 
word  for  it  that  he  studied  Pickwick  on  the  bench  while  the 
jury  was  deliberating.  There  was  much  friendly  intercourse 
180 


SOME  LIMBS  OF  THE  LAW  181 

with  this  excellent  man  for  whom  Dickens  had  a  peculiar 
regard,  as  is  shown  by  the  following,  written  in  184^: 

"Denman  delights  me.  I  am  glad  to  think  I  have 
always  liked  him  so  well.  I  am  sure  that  whenever  he 
makes  a  mistake  it  is  a  mistake ;  and  that  no  man  lives 
who  has  a  grander  and  nobler  scorn  for  every  mean 
and  dastard  action.  I  would  to  Heaven  it  were  decorous 
to  pay  him  some  public  tribute  of  respect." 

There  was  an  equally  hearty  friendship  with  Lord  Camp- 
bell, the  man  who  declared  that  he  would  rather  have  written 
PicJcwick  than  be  Chief  Justice  of  England  and  a  peer  of 
Parliament.  The  occasion  was  a  supper  party  that  followed 
a  performance  of  "The  Lighthouse"  in  1855,  and  Forster  in 
recording  it  adds  a  note  which  is  further  proof  of  the  great 
judge's  liking  for  Dickens's  books.  "Sitting  at  Nisi  Prius 
not  long  before,"  he  says,  "the  Chief  Justice,  with  the  same 
out-of-the-way  liking  for  letters,  had  committed  what  was 
called  at  the  time  a  breach  of  judicial  decorum.  'The  name,' 
he  said,  'of  the  illustrious  Charles  Dickens  has  been  called 
on  the  jur}^,  but  he  has  not  answered.  If  his  great  Chancery 
suit  had  been  still  going  on  I  certainly  would  have  excused 
him,  but  as  that  is  over  he  might  have  done  us  the  honour 
of  attending  here  that  he  might  have  seen  how  we  went  on 
at  Common  Law.'  " 

With  Lord  Brougham  there  was  only  a  friendly  acquaint- 
anceship. Dickens,  of  course,  sympathised  with  Brougham's 
political  opinions,  and  he  found  the  lawyer  a  useful  ally  in 
the  fight  on  the  copyright  question,  but  Brougham  could 
never  have  made  a  very  strong  personal  appeal  to  him.  We 
read  of  Dickens  receiving  a  letter  from  him  in  America  in 
1842  (probably  on  that  copyright  question),  and  we  read 
of  a  meeting  in  Paris  four  years  later,  but  there  is  not  the 
least  evidence  of  any  genial  intercourse.  With  Lord  Cock- 
bum,  the  friend  of  Jeffrey,  there  was  a  much  greater  friend- 
ship. 

Sergeant  Ballantine  was  almost  a  lifelong  friend.  They 
met  on  January  10,  1838,  and  Dickens  died  on  the  very 
day  that  he  would  have  been  elected  a  member  of  the  Union 
Club  on  Ballantine's  recommendation,  so  that  their  friend- 


182  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

ship  extended  over  a  period  of  thirty-two  years.    Ballantine 
was  a  great  admirer  of  Dickens  himself  and  of  his  books: 

"I  was  very  much  attached  to  Charles  Dickens ;  there 
was  a  brightness  and  geniahty  about  him  that  greatly 
fascinated  his  companions.  His  laugh  was  so  cheer}', 
and  he  seemed  to  enter  into  the  feelings  of  those  around 
him.  He  told  a  story  well  and  never  prosily ;  he  was  a 
capital  listener,  and  in  conversation  was  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  dictatorial.  ...  No  man  possessed 
more  sincere  friends  or  deserved  them  better." 

He  records  one  amusing  anecdote.  Upon  one  occasion 
he  started  from  Boulogne  with  Dickens  and  Dr.  ElHotson. 
"Neither  of  my  comrades  was  a  good  sailor,  and  they  knew 
it  themselves.  The  illustrious  author  armed  himself  with 
a  box  of  homoeopathic  globules ;  and  the  doctor,  whose  figure 
was  rotund,  having  a  theory  that  by  tightening  the  stomach 
the  internal  movements  which  caused  the  sickness  might  be 
prevented,  waddled  down  to  the  boat  with  his  body  almost 
divided  by  a  strap.  The  weather  was  stormy,  and  neither 
remedy  proved  of  any  avail." 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  by  the  way,  that  Ballantine 
knew  the  originals  of  two  of  Dickens's  characters  very  well. 
Of  Mr.  Laing,  the  original  of  Mr.  Fang,  the  bullying 
magistrate  in  Oliver  Twist,  he  says:  "Notwithstanding  an 
unfortunate  temper,  he  was  a  thorouglily  honourable  gentle- 
man, a  good  lawyer,  and  an  accomplished  scholar,  very 
precise  in  his  dress,  but  very  sour  looking."  And  of  Sir 
Peter  Laurie,  the  original  of  Alderman  Cute  in  The  Chimes, 
he  says  he  was  "a  shrewd,  far-seeing  Scotchman,  quaint  and 
conceited,  but  with  plenty  of  sound  good  sense,  and  an 
honourable  character.'^ 


CHAPTER  XXX 

GORE   HOUSE  FRIENDS 

"I  HAD  no  means  of  knowing  whether  what  the  world  said 
of  this  most  beautiful  woman  was  true  or  false,  but  I  am 
sure  God  intended  her  to  be  good,  and  there  was  a  deep- 
seated  good  intent  in  whatever  she  did  that  came  under  my 
observation.  She  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  doing  a 
gracious  act,  of  saying  a  gracious  word." 

This  is  what  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall  wrote  of  Lady  Blessington. 
It  is  the  tribute  of  a  good  woman  to  the  memory  of  a 
much-maligned  woman,  and  its  justice  need  not  be  doubted. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  said  of  her  that  she  deserved  to  be  good. 
She  had  many  true  friends  among  the  greatest  men  of  her 
time,  and  they  all  paid  their  tributes  to  her  memory  when, 
her  glory  faded,  she  died  in  poverty  in  Paris. 

And  as  to  D'Orsay,  he  certainly  was  "a  rare  sort  of 
bird  for  our  reticent  land,"  but  he  was  a  remarkable  man 
not  at  all  deserving  of  unqualified  condemnation.  I  sup- 
pose in  our  "moral"  moods  we  condemn  Micawber,  but  the 
"moral"  mood  is  not  the  charitable  mood,  and  both  the 
Countess  of  Blessington  and  the  Comte  D'Orsay  have  very 
strong  claims  upon  our  charity  when  we  are  attempting  to 
estimate  their  characters.  Landor,  Thackeray,  Forster, 
Dickens,  Carlyle,  and  many  more  men  of  the  greatest  ability 
and  the  highest  character  entertained  for  this  pair  feelings 
of  the  most  earnest  friendship.  Miss  Hogarth  has  told  us 
that  the  Countess  was  "a  lady  for  whom  Chas.  Dickens 
had  a  most  affectionate  friendship  and  respect  for  the  sake 
of  her  own  admirable  qualities,  and  in  remembrance  of  her 
delightful  association  with  Gore  House,  where  he  was  a 
frequent  visitor.  For  Lady  Blessington  he  had  a  high  ad- 
miration and  great  regard,  and  she  was  one  of  his  earliest 
appreciators ;  and  Comte  D'Orsay  was  also  a  much-loved 
friend." 

183 


184  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

One  story  that  is  told  of  D'Orsay  is  as  follows;  A  major 
was  telling  his  tale  of  woe.  He  was  hampered  with  debt,  and 
had  come  to  London  to  sell  his  commission  in  order  to  pay 
his  creditors.  "Lend  me  £10,"  said  D'Orsay.  The  money 
was  lent,  and  the  next  day  the  Count  handed  to  the  major 
£750,  Avith  "It  is  yours.  I  gambled  with  your  £10  last 
night,  and  won  this.  It  is  yours  most  justly,  for  if  I  had 
lost  I  should  never  have  paid  you  the  £10."  How  could 
Dickens  be  on  terms  of  affection  with  such  a  man?  It  is 
the  obvious  question,  and  the  answer  is  equally  obvious. 
There  was — must  have  been — another  side  to  D'Orsay's 
character.  He  lived  grandly  on  nothing  a  year,  but — ^let  us 
quote  H.  F.  Chorley: 

"There  was  every  conceivable  and  inconceivable  story 
current  in  London  of  the  extravagance  of  the  *King 
of  the  French' ;  but  it  was  never  told  that  he  had  been 
cradled,  as  it  were,  in  ignorance  of  the  value  of  monej^ 
such  as  those  will  not  believe  possible  who  have  been 
less  indulged  and  less  spoiled,  and  who  have  been  less 
pleasing  to  indulge  and  to  spoil  than  he  was.  .  .  .  He 
was  spoiled  during  most  of  his  life  by  every  one  whom 
he  came  near.  ...  It  was  a  curious  sight  to  see,  as 
I  often  did  in  the  early  days  of  our  acquaintance,  how 
he  seemed  to  take  it  for  granted  that  everybody  had 
any  conceivable  quantity  of  five-pound  notes.  .  .  . 
Never  was  Sybarite  so  little  selfish  as  he.  He  loved 
extravagance — waste  even.  He  would  give  half  a 
sovereign  to  a  box-keeper  at  a  theatre  as  a  matter 
of  course  and  not  ostentation ;  but  he  could  also  bestow 
time,  pains,  money,  with  a  magnificence  and  a  delicacy 
such  as  showed  what  a  real  princely  stuff  there  was  in 
the  nature  of  the  man  whom  Fortune  had  so  cruelly 
spoiled.  He  had  'the  memory  of  the  heart'  in  per- 
fection." 

All  the  men  who  knew  liim  bear  the  same  testimony.  Such 
a  man  as  Macready  fell  under  Wie  spell:  "No  one  who 
knew  him  and  had  affections  could  help  loving  him.  .  .  . 
He  was  the  most  brilhant,  graceful,  endearmg  man  I  ever 
saw — humorous,    witty,    and    clear-headed."      Indeed,    the 


GORE  HOUSE  FRIENDS  185 

truth  is  that,  nurtured  in  a  more  self-reliant  school,  D'Orsay 
might  have  been  a  great  and  good  man.  And  Dickens,  with 
that  perception  which  never  failed  him,  saw  the  solid  quali- 
ties beneath  the  somewhat  fantastic  exterior,  and  loved  the 
man  for  them. 

In  an  article  in  Household  Words  in  1853  D'Orsay  was 
written  of  as  one  "whose  name  is  publicly  synonymous  with 
elegant  and  graceful  accomplishment,  and  who,  by  those 
who  knew  him  well,  is  affectionately  remembered  and  re- 
gretted, as  a  man  whose  great  abilities  might  have  raised 
him  to  any  distinction,  and  whose  gentle  heart  even  a  world 
of  fashion  left  unspoiled."  This  was  not  written  by  Dickens 
himself,  but  it  passed  his  editorial  scrutiny,  and  undoubt- 
edly exactly  expressed  his  feelings. 

It  has  been  stated,  X  know  not  on  what  authority,  that 
Dickens  met  Lady  Blessington — and  presumably  D'Orsay 
also — in  1841.  I  am  inchned  to  doubt  the  accuracy  of 
this.  Forster  had  been  a  friend  at  Gore  House  since  1836, 
from  which  year  his  intimacy  with  Dickens  also  dated.  It 
would  seem  extraordinary  that  he  should  so  long  have  de- 
layed introducing  liis  brilliant  young  friend  of  whom  he  was 
so  proud  to  the  famous  salon.  Anyhow,  whenever  the  in- 
troduction took  place,  certain  it  is  that  Dickens  became 
a  very  close  friend  and  one  of  the  most  frequent  and  welcome 
visitors  at  Gore  House,  which  was  then  at  the  summit  of 
its  glory.  The  wonders  of  this  salon  have  been  described 
by  many  writers.  Lady  B>essington  held  her  court  in  the 
library,  "a  magnificent  apartment,  lined  with  books,  the 
edges  of  the  shelves  enamelled  in  ivory,  and  mirrors  being 
dotted  about.  The  fireplace  was  of  beautifully  carved 
marble,  and  in  the  centre  were  columns  supporting  an  arch. 
Curtains  of  silk  damask,  and  a  dehcate  apple-green  shade; 
the  same  material,  set  in  white  and  gold,  being  seen  in  the 
chairs  and  lounges." 

Here  they  met  frequently,  all  the  brilliant  men  of  a 
briUiant  period — Landor  and  Disraeh,  Dickens  and  Carlyle, 
Forster  and  Maclise,  Bulwer  and  Ainsworth,  Macready  and 
Marryat,  and  Barry  Cornwall — men  differing  in  tempera- 
ment as  one  star  differeth  from  another  in  glory ;  all  united 
in  paying  homage  to  this  remarkable  woman.  Dickens  fell 
under  the  spell  at  once,  and  Forster  tells  us  what  warmth 


186  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

of  regard  he  had  for  her,  and  how  uninterruptedly  joyous 
and  pleasurable  were  his  associations  with  her. 

In  184)4}  she  was  able  to  be  of  real  service  to  him.  On 
March  10  he  wrote  to  her: 

"I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  *see  the  world,'  and 
mean  to  decamp,  bag  and  baggage,  next  midsummer 
for  a  twelve-month.  I  purpose  establishing  my  family 
in  some  convenient  place,  from  whence  I  can  make  per- 
sonal ravages  on  the  neighbouring  country,  and,  some- 
how or  other,  have  got  it  into  my  head  that  Nice  would 
be  a  favourable  spot  for  headquarters.  You  are  so 
well  acquainted  with  these  matters  that  I  am  anxious 
to  have  the  benefit  of  your  kind  advice.  I  do  not 
doubt  that  you  can  tell  me  whether  this  same  Nice  be 
a  healthy  place  the  year  through,  whether  it  be  reason- 
ably cheap,  pleasant  to  look  at  and  to  live  in,  and  the 
like.  If  you  will  tell  me  when  you  have  ten  minutes  to 
spare  for  such  a  client,  I  shall  be  delighted  to  come 
to  you,  and  guide  myself  by  your  opinion.  I  will  not 
ask  you  to  forgive  me  for  troubling  you,  because  I  am 
sure  beforehand  that  you  will  do  so.  .  .   ." 

She  gave  him  the  advice  asked  for,  and  D'Orsay  supple- 
mented it:  "Pray  say  to  Count  D'Orsay  everything  that 
is  cordial  and  loving  from  me.  The  travelling  purse  he  gave 
me  has  been  of  immense  service.  It  has  been  constantly 
opened.  All  Italy  seems  to  yearn  to  put  its  hand  into  it." 
Every  one  of  the  few  letters  of  Dickens  to  Lady  Blessington 
that  have  been  preserved  bears  testimony  to  the  regard  in 
which  he  held  her.  For  instance,  writing  from  Milan,  in 
November  1844,  he  says:  "Appearances  are  against  me. 
Don't  believe  them.  I  have  written  you  in  intention  fifty 
letters,  and  I  can  claim  no  credit  for  one  of  them  (though 
they  were  the  best  letters  you  ever  received)  for  they  aU 
originated  in  my  desire  to  live  in  your  memory  and  regard." 
And  in  1847  he  wrote  from  Paris:  "I  feel  very  wicked  in 
beginning  this  note,  and  deeply  remorseful  for  not  having 
begun  and  ended  it  long  ago.  But  you  know  how  difficult 
it  is  to  write  letters  in  the  midst  of  a  writing  life;  and  as 
you  know,  too  (I  hope),  how  earnestly  and  affectionately 
I  always  think  of  you,  Avherever  I  am,  I  take  heart,  on  a 


GORE  HOUSE  FRIENDS  187 

little  consideration,  and  feel  comparatively  good  again." 
In  December  1844,  when  he  made  a  hurried  visit  to  England 
in  order  to  read  The  Chimes  at  Forster's  house,  he  found 
time  to  visit  Lady  Blessington,  and  on  the  day  of  liis  de- 
parture he  wrote  to  her : 

"Business  for  other  people  (and  by  no  means  of  a 
pleasant  kind)  has  held  me  prisoner  during  two  whole 
days,  and  will  so  detain  me  to-day,  in  the  very  agony 
of  my  departure  for  Italy,  that  I  shall  not  even  be  able 
to  reach  Gore  House  once  more,  on  which  I  had  set 
my  heart.  I  cannot  bear  the  thought  of  going  away 
without  some  sort  of  reference  to  the  happy  day  you 
gave  me  on  Monday,  and  the  pleasure  and  delight  I 
had  in  your  earnest  greeting.  I  shall  never  forget  it, 
believe  me.  ...  It  will  be  an  unspeakable  satisfaction 
(though  I  am  not  maliciously  disposed)  to  know  under 
your  own  hand  at  Genoa  that  my  little  book  made  you 
cry.  I  hope  to  prove  a  better  correspondent  on  my 
return  to  those  shores.  But,  better  or  worse,  or  any- 
how, I  am  ever,  my  dear  Lady  Blessington,  in  no 
common  degree,  and  not  with  an  everyday  regard, 
yours." 

When  the  "Daily  News"  was  started  in  1846,  Lady 
Blessington  was  asked  if  she  would  supply  the  paper  with 
"any  sort  of  intelligence  she  might  like  to  communicate  of 
the  sayings,  doings,  or  movements  in  the  fashionable  world." 
She  agreed,  but  asked  £800  a  year.  This  was  considered 
too  high  a  figure,  and  she  was  offered  £400  a  year,  or  £250 
for  six  months,  another  agreement  to  be  made  at  the  ex- 
piration of  that  period  if  satisfactory  to  both  parties. 
This  latter  offer  was  accepted,  but  at  the  end  of  the  six 
months  the  Editor  (John  Forster)  declined  to  renew  the 
agreement. 

It  should  be  added  here  that  Dickens  was  a  contributor 
to  "The  Keepsake,"  which  was  edited  by  Lady  Blessington. 
His  contribution  in  1843  was  the  verses  entitled  A  Word 
in  Season, 

The  novelist's  regard  for  D'Orsay  is  shown  by  many 
references  in  his  letters,  but  the  best  evidence  is  the  fact 
that  he  named  one  of  his  sons  after  him.     The  late  Mr. 


188  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Alfred  Tennyson  Dickens  was  not  named,  as  one  might 
naturally  conclude,  exclusively  after  the  poet  laureate, 
"Alfred"  being  in  compliment  to  the  Count.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note,  also,  that  Dickens  was  influenced  in  some 
degree  by  D'Orsay's  judgment  to  publish  Pictures  from 
I  tall/.  These  Pictures  were  practically  a  reprint  of  the 
letters  he  had  addressed  to  Forster.  Referring  to  them 
in  a  subsequent  letter  to  that  friend,  he  says:  "Seriously, 
it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  find  that  you  are  really 
pleased  with  these  shadows  in  the  water,  and  think  them 
worth  looking  at.  .  .  .  D'Orsay,  from  whom  I  had  a  charm- 
ing letter  three  days  since,  seems  to  think  as  you  do  of 
what  he  has  read  in  those  shown  to  him,  and  says  they 
remind  him  vividly  of  the  real  aspect  of  these  scenes." 

The  glory  of  Gore  House  was  but  transient,  and  its  sun 
set  for  ever  in  1849.  It  had  begun  to  sink  behind  the  clouds 
two  years  before.  Owing  to  the  famine  and  distress  in 
Ireland,  Lady  Blessington's  income  fell  off,  and  her  income 
from  books  diminished  too.  Eventually  the  house  had  to 
be  shut  against  creditors  and  the  sheriff's  officer.  At  last, 
however,  an  entry  was  obtained.  She  was  offered  assistance 
by  many  friends,  but  she  refused,  and  placed  Gore  House 
in  the  hands  of  an  auctioneer,  she  and  D'Orsay  leaving 
England  never  to  return.  Gore  House  then  became  a  scene 
of  desolation. 

Lady  Blessington  died  but  a  few  weeks  after  her  arrival 
in  Paris.  D'Orsay  lived  on  until  1852,  and  he  dined  with 
Dickens  in  the  French  capital  in  1850. 

The  memories  of  these  two  friends,  and  of  the  happy  days 
at  Gore  House,  never  left  Dickens,  and  we  find  a  reference 
to  them  in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Landor  in  1856,  from 
Boulogne : 

"There  in  Paris  ...  I  found  Marguerite  Power  and 
little  Nelly,  living  with  their  mother  and  a  pretty  sister 
in  a  very  small  and  neat  apartment,  and  working  (as 
Marguerite  told  me)  hard  for  a  living.  All  tliat  I 
saw  of  them  filled  me  with  respect,  and  revived  the 
tenderest  remembrances  of  Gore  House.  They  are  com- 
ing to  pass  two  or  three  weeks  here  for  a  country  rest, 
next  month.  We  had  many  long  talks  concerning  Gore 
House  and  all  its  bright  associations." 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  HON.   MRS.   NORTON 


In  these  aays  Dickens  was  acquainted  with  another  bril- 
hant  woman,  as  unhappy  as  Lady  Blessington— the  Hon. 
Mrs.  Norton.  Indeed  they  were  very  friendly.  Speaking 
ot  a  dinner  at  Devonshire  Terrace  in  April  1849,  Forste? 
says  that  among  the  guests  was  "Lady  Graham,  wife  of  Sir 
James  Graham,  and  sister  of  Tom  Sheridan's  wife,  than 
whom  not  even  the  wit  and  beauty  of  her  nieces,  Mrs. 
Norton  and  Lady  Dufferin,  did  greater  justice  to  the  bril- 

Z\trt  t  ^^rt"^'  ^°  ^^"^  «^  -hose  members, 
and  these  three  above  all,  Dickens  prized  among  his  friends." 
liut  there  IS  positively  no  record  of  the  friendship.  This 
IS  Forsters  only  reference  to  it,  and  Mrs.  Norton's  biog- 
raphers only  mention  of  Dickens  is  in  connection  with  the 
performances  at  the  St.  James's  Theatre  in  1845  «We 
find  she  says  "the  Duff  Gordons  and  Henry  Re;ve  and 
Mrs    Norton  aJ^  ,n  a  box  together  with  Lord  Melbourne  at 

see  itT:  ^'"''l  ^"  ^""^"^^^^  «f  th^t  -"^e  year  to 
acted  hv'  ^^P^/!t^*^*-"  «f  'Every  Man  in  His  Humour,' 
acted  by  some  of  the  writers  for  Tunch'  and  other  Hterar^ 

That  Lo  Jm"?.'  "'''^.^"^  ""J^^^^^^  ^^^^^--  We  are  told 
that   Lord   Melbourne   found   the   play   very   poor  till 

suddenly    between    the    acts    he    exclaimed    in    a    st;ntorian 

o^Tth^  ^yrythe^^tt"^-  ^'^  '^  ^^^^^ 
Mention  of  Lord  Melbourne  recalls  an  interesting  fact 

F.l.g.,.ld  ..1,.  u„  ,.,„„;,.  n.,  „,j__  .w."il  S 


190  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

it  the  idea  for  the  Pickwick  trial.  He  states,  indeed,  that 
the  novehst  parodied  many  of  the  incidents,  and  that  Buz- 
fuz's  cross-examination  Avas  a  reproduction.  Referring  to 
the  great  play  made  by  Buzfuz  with  the  two  letters  that 
had  passed  between  Pickwick  and  Mrs.   Bardell,  he   says: 

"They  were  intended  to  satirise  the  trivial  scraps 
brought  forward  in  Mrs.  Norton's  matrimonial  case — • 
Norton  v.  Lord  Melbourne.  My  late  friend,  Charles 
Dickens  the  younger,  ...  in  his  notes  on  Pickwick, 
puts  aside  this  theory  as  a  mere  unfounded  theory ;  but 
it  will  be  seen  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  in  the  matter. 
Sir  W.  Follett  laid  just  as  much  stress  on  these  scraps 
as  Sergeant  Buzfuz  did  on  his :  he  even  used  the  phrase 
'it  seems  there  may  be  latent  love  like  latent  heat  in 
these  productions.'  We  have  also  'Yours,  Melbourne,' 
like  'Yours,  Pickwick.'  .  .  .  'There  is  another  of  these 
notes,'  went  on  Sir  William.  '  "How  are  you?"  Again 
there  is  no  beginning,  you  see.'  'The  next  has  no  date 
whatever,  which  is  in  itself  suspicious,'  Buzfuz  would 
have  added.  Another  ran:  'I  will  call  about  half-past 
four.  Yours.'  'These  are  the  only  notes  that  have 
been  found,'  added  the  counsel,  with  due  gravity. 
*They  seem  to  import  much  more  than  mere  words 
convey.^    After  this  can  there  be  any  doubt  .^" 

Well,  speaking  for  myself,  I  should  think  not.  It  seems 
to  mc  that  Mr.  Fitzgerald  has  made  out  an  unanswerable 
case.     Listen  to  this  for  a  moment: 

"Two  letters  have  passed  between  these  parties. 
Letters  that  must  be  viewed  with  a  cautious  and  suspi- 
cious eye;  letters  that  were  evidently  intended  at  the 
time,  by  Lord  Melbourne,  to  mislead  and  delude  any 
third  parties  into  whose  hands  they  might  fall.  Let 
me  read  the  first:  'How  are  you?'  There  is  no  be- 
ginning, you  see.  'How  are  you ! !'  Gentlemen,  is  the 
happiness  of  a  sensitive  and  confiding  husband  to  be 
trifled  away  by  such  shallow  artifices  as  these?  The 
next  has  no  date  whatever,  which  is  in  itself  suspicious : 
'I  will  call  about  half-past  four.      Yours.'     It   seems 


THE  HON.  MRS.  NORTON  191 

that  there  may  be  latent  love  like  latent  heat;  these 
productions  may  be  mere  covers  for  hidden  fire,  mere 
substitutes  for  some  endearing  word  or  promise,  agree- 
ably to  a  preconcerted  system  of  correspondence  art- 
fully contrived  by  Lord  Melbourne,  and  which  I  confess 
I  am  not  in  a  position  to  explain." 

Now  the  trial  took  place  in  June  1836.  PicJewick  had 
started  a  couple  of  months  before.  All  the  world  was  talk- 
ing about  the  Norton  v.  Melbourne  trial.  Mrs.  Norton's 
biographer  says :  "There  had  been  great  talk  beforehand 
of  compromising  letters  by  Lord  Melbourne,  which  were  to 
be  produced  in  evidence  against  him,  but  on  the  day  of 
the  trial  all  that  appeared  were  several  little  notes  of  the 
utmost  brevity  and  unimportance."  All  the  world  had  an- 
ticipated this  correspondence  which  was  going  to  be  so 
incriminating;  the  trial  was  the  sensation  of  the  day;  yet 
those  trifling  notes  were  the  tiny  mouse  that  the  mountain 
of  gossip  and  scandal  brought  forth  of  its  labour ! 

Think  of  Boz,  with  his  experience  of  the  law,  with  his 
experience  as  a  journalist;  think  of  him  full  of  enthusiasm 
over  his  first  commission ;  think  of  him  with  a  roving  com- 
mission to  take  the  PickAvickians  where  he  liked  and  to  do 
what  he  liked  with  them;  think  of  him  with  all  his  keenness, 
with  all  his  powers  of  observation,  with  his  sense  of  the 
ridiculous,  on  the  alert  for  material.  Then  think  of  this 
trial,  the  sensation  of  the  hour  just  when  his  mind  was  full- 
est of  Pickwick.  And  then  read  Sergeant  Buzfuz's  address 
in  conjunction  with  Sir  William  Follett's  address.  Was 
ever  anything  clearer? 

If  for  this  reason  only,  Mrs.  Norton  is  worthy  of  the 
place  she  has  been  given  here.  But  she  was  unquestionably 
on  friendly  terras  with  Dickens,  who  had  a  great  admiration 
for  her  gifts.  And,  it  should  be  added,  she  contributed  once 
or  twice  to  Household  Words, 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

MISS  COUTTS 

There  is  another  lady  whose  place  is  here,  one  of  the 
most  honoured  friends  that  Dickens  ever  had,  one  at  whose 
hands  he  received  innumerable  kindnesses,  one  of  the  noblest 
women  that  this  country  has  ever  produced.  I  mean  Miss 
Coutts,  known  to  a  later  generation  as  the  Baroness  Burdett- 
Coutts,  the  sweet  and  gracious  woman  whose  lifelong  devo- 
tion to  the  doing  of  good  deeds  won  for  her  a  final  resting- 
place  in  the  grand  old  Abbey,  close  to  the  friend  to  whom 
she  was  so  kind,  and  who  rendered  her,  through  so  many 
years,  such  devoted  help  in  her  efforts  to  make  the  world 
a  happier  place. 

Forsters'  earliest  mention  of  her  relates  to  the  year  1840, 
when,  after  naming  a  number  of  specially  liked  friends,  he 
says:  "Other  friends  became  familiar  in  later  years;  but, 
disinclined  as  he  was  to  the  dinner  invitations  that  reached 
him  from  every  quarter,  all  such  meetings  with  those  I  have 
named,  and  in  an  especial  manner  the  marked  attentions 
shown  him  by  Miss  Coutts,  which  began  with  the  very  be- 
ginning of  his  career,  were  invariably  welcome."  So  that 
the  novelist  had  known  Miss  Coutts  from  his  earliest  days 
of  fame.  He  had  known  her  father,  too.  Sir  Francis 
Burdett  had  been  attracted  by  the  onslaughts  on  the  Poor- 
law  in  Oliver  Twist,  and  in  a  speech  at  Birmingham  referred 
to  the  young  writer,  and  spoke  approvingly  of  his  advocacy 
of  the  cause  of  the  poor. 

Miss  Coutts  seems  to  have  taken  a  particular  liking  to 
the  novelist's  eldest  boy.  For  many  years  she  sent  him  on 
his  birthday,  which  happened  to  be  Twelfth  Day,  a  Twelfth 
Cake,  and  there  is  an  amusing  reference  to  one  of  these 
confections  in  a  letter  written  to  Forster  from  Genoa  in 
1845:  "Miss  Coutts  has  sent  Charley,  with  the  best  of 
letters  to  me,  a  Twelfth  Cake  weigliing  ninety  pounds, 
192 


MISS  COUTTS  193 

magnificently  decorated;  and  only  think  of  the  characters, 
Fairburn's  Twelfth  Night  characters,  being  detained  at  the 
custom-house  for  Jesuitical  surveillance!     But  these  fellows 

are Well,  never  mind!"     In  1846  she  offered  to  take 

charge  of  Charley's  education.  The  ofi'er  was  accepted,  and 
the  boy  went  to  King's  College.  Forster  says :  "Munificent 
as  the  kindness  was,  however,  it  was  yet  only  the  smallest 
part  of  the  obligation  which  Dickens  felt  that  he  owed  this 
lady." 

In  1856  she  did  the  novelist  a  kind  service  in  respect  of 
another  son,  obtaining  for  Walter  a  cadetship  in  the  26th 
Native  (India)  Infantry  Regiment.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  Dickens  held  this  kind  friend  in  the  highest  regard, 
and  entertained  the  deepest  respect  for  her.  "She  is  a  good 
creature,  I  protest  to  God,"  he  wrote  on  one  occasion,  "and 
I  have  a  most  profound  affection  and  respect  for  her." 
And  he  bore  public  testimony  to  the  fact  in  1844,  when  he 
dedicated  Martin  Chuzzlewit  to  her  "with  the  true  and 
earnest  regard  of  the  author."  More  than  that,  he  re- 
ciprocated her  kindness  all  that  lay  in  his  power  by  render- 
ing, through  many  years,  "unstinted  service  of  time  and 
labour,  with  sacrifices  unselfish  as  her  own,"  to  all  her 
schemes  for  the  benefit  of  the  neglected  and  uncared-for 
classes  of  the  population. 

His  knowledge  of  the  poor  and  their  needs,  his  earnest 
desire  to  see  those  needs  supplied,  and  his  sane,  common- 
sense,  business-like  character  made  him  invaluable  to  her  in 
her  work,  and  until  the  end  of  his  life  he  was  her  most  trusted 
confidant  and  adviser  in  almost  every  one  of  her  schemes. 
Indeed,  it  was  he  who  first  showed  her  the  way.  It  was  he 
who  introduced  her  to  the  slums  of  London,  taking  her  into 
the  wretchedest  parts  of  the  metropolis,  and  it  was  a  direct 
result  of  those  visits  to  the  East  End  that  she  blotted  out 
one  of  the  worst  plague  spots  of  all — Nova  Scotia  Gardens, 
Bethnal  Green — and  erected  the  Columbia  Square  Buildings, 
the  first  model  dwellings  in  London,  It  was  he,  too,  who 
secured  her  interest  for  the  Ragged  Schools.  "I  sent  Miss 
Coutts  a  sledge-hammer  account  of  the  ragged-schools,"  he 
wrote  to  Forster  in  September  1843,  "and  as  I  saw  her 
name  for  two  hundred  pounds  in  the  Clergy  Education  sub- 
scription list,  took  pains  to  show  her  that  religious  mysteries 


194  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

and  difficult  creeds  wouldn't  do  for  such  pupils.  I  told  her, 
too,  that  it  was  of  immense  importance  they  should  be 
washed.  She  writes  back  to  know  what  the  rent  of  some 
large  airy  premises  would  be,  and  what  the  expense  of  erect- 
ing a  regular  bathing  or  purifying  place ;  touching  which 
points  I  am  in  correspondence  with  the  authorities.  I  have 
no  doubt  she  will  do  whatever  I  ask  her  in  the  matter." 

Again,  in  the  establishment  of  the  home  for  fallen  women 
at  Shepherd's  Bush,  Dickens  was  Miss  Coutts's  right  hand. 
He  took  up  the  work  with  enthusiasm,  and  wrote  an  appeal 
to  those  women  which  was  printed  as  a  pamphlet  and  given 
away  in  the  streets.  (Has  no  collector  ever  yet  lighted  on  a 
copy  of  that  appeal?)  Indeed,  the  whole  of  the  work  was 
carried  through  by  him,  acting  for  Miss  Coutts,  and  Forster 
declares  that  it  largely  and  regularly  occupied  his  time  for 
several  years. 

Of  social  intercourse  we  do  not  read,  but  we  do  know 
that  Dickens  was  a  frequent  guest  at  Miss  Coutts's  house, 
and  we  know  that  one  of  the  things  that  delighted  Hans 
Andersen  most  of  all  during  his  second  visit  to  England 
was  his  introduction  by  Dickens  to  that  house  and  its  noble 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

THE  GOOD  EARL 

With  that  other  great  philanthropist  of  the  time,  the 
"good  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,"  Dickens  was  also  well  ac- 
quainted, though  perhaps  he  can  scarcely  be  described  as 
a  member  of  the  Dickens  circle.  That  the  greatest  and 
most  single-hearted  social  reformer  of  his  or  any  other 
generation  and  the  author  of  Oliver  Twist  and  Nicholas 
Nicklehy  should  come  into  personal  contact  was  inevitable. 
But  it  was  equally  inevitable  that  there  should  be  no  com- 
radeship, if  I  may  so  put  it.  The  good  Earl,  we  are  told, 
had  no  sense  of  humour,  never  made  a  joke  or  saw  the  point 
of  one.  It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  believe  of  a  man  who  so 
loved  his  fellows,  but  all  the  same  it  is  not  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  him  as  capable  of  reading  Pickwick  without  a 
chuckle.  Besides,  his  whole  life  was  guided  by  a  decidedly 
narrow  set  of  Christian  ethics,  and  Dickens's  Christianity 
was  of  the  broadest  possible  kind — so  broad,  indeed,  that 
Lord  Shaftesbury  seems  not  to  have  been  quite  convinced 
of  its  reality.  For  in  1871  we  find  him  noting  in  his  Diary: 
"Forster  has  sent  me  his  Life  of  Dickens.  The  man  was  a 
phenomenon,  an  exception,  a  special  production.  Nothing 
like  him  ever  preceded.  Nature  isn't  so  tautological  as  to 
make  another  to  follow  him.  He  was  set,  I  doubt  not,  to 
rouse  attention  to  many  evils,  and  many  woes ;  and  though 
not  putting  it  on  Christian  principles  (which  would  have 
rendered  it  unacceptable),  he  may  have  been  in  God's  singu- 
lar and  unfathomable  goodness  as  much  a  servant  of  the 
Most  High  as  the  pagan  Naaman  'by  whom  the  Lord  have 
given  deliverance  to  Syria' !  God  gave  him,  as  I  wrote  to 
Forster,  a  general  retainer  against  all  suffering  and  op- 
pression." 

Now  that,  it  seems  to  me,  reveals  a  mind  with  which 
Dickens  could  never  have  been  absolutely  at  home.  But  he 
195 


196  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

honoured  the  Earl  as  truly  as  any  one  did.  The  latter's 
biographer,  Mr.  Edwin  Hoddcr,  records :  "Charles  Dickens 
was  always  a  warm  admirer,  and  on  several  occasions  aided 
materially  some  of  his  great  labours  for  the  poor."  Mr. 
Hoddcr  adds  that  in  1838  the  novelist  became  an  ally  on 
the  factory  question,  and  he  quotes  a  letter  written  to  Mr. 
Edward  Fitzgerald  on  December  29  in  that  year,  in  the 
course  of  which  Dickens  said: 

"I  went  some  weeks  ago  to  Manchester,  and  saw  the 
worst  cotton  mill.  And  then  I  saw  the  hest.  Ex  uno 
disce  omnes.  There  was  no  great  difference  between 
them.  ...  On  the  eleventh  of  next  month  I  am  going 
down  again  only  for  three  days,  and  then  into  the 
enemy's  camp  and  the  very  headquarters  of  the  Factory 
System  advocates.  I  fear  I  shall  have  very  little  op- 
portunity of  looking  about  me,  but  I  should  be  most 
happy  to  avail  myself  of  any  introduction  from  Lord 
Ashley  which  in  the  course  of  an  hour  or  so  would 
enable  me  to  make  any  fresh  observations. 

"With  that  nobleman's  most  benevolent  and  excellent 
exertions,  and  with  the  evidence  which  he  was  the  means 
of  bringing  forward,  I  am  well  acquainted.  So  far  as 
seeing  goes,  I  have  seen  enough  for  my  purpose,  and 
what  I  have  seen  has  disgusted  and  astonished  me  be- 
yond all  measure.  I  mean  to  strike  the  heaviest  blow 
in  my  power  for  these  unfortunate  creatures,  but 
whether  I  shall  do  so  in  Nicklehy  or  wait  some  other 
opportunity,  I  have  not  yet  determined." 

He  did  not  strike  the  blow  for  some  years — not,  indeed, 
for  sixteen  years.  For  it  was  not  until  1854  that  he  tackled 
the  factory  question  in  Hard  Times.  As  all  the  world 
knows,  that  book  was  written  largely  under  Carlylean  in- 
fluence, but  it  is  worth  remembering  that  it  was  Lord 
Shaftesbury's  activities  that  first  roused  Dickens,  and  that 
when  at  last  he  dealt  with  the  question  he  selected  (as  ho 
had  proposed  to  do  years  before)  Manchester  for  the  back- 
ground of  the  story. 

Wlien  the  foregoing  letter  was  written  Dickens  had  not 
met  Lord  Asliley  (as  he  then  was),  and  another  ten  years 


THE  GOOD  EARL  197 

passed  before  they  became  personally  acquainted.  But  that 
his  admiration  for  the  man  and  his  work  became  unlessened 
is  shown  by  a  letter  written  to  Forster  in  1841,  in  which 
he  wrote  that  Samuel  Rogers  was  much  pleased  with  Lord 
Ashley  for  refusing  a  place  in  Peel's  Government  unless 
Peel  would  pledge  himself  to  factory  improvement,  and 
added,  "Much  do  I  honour  him  for  it."  In  1851  he  spoke 
at  the  dinner  of  the  Metropolitan  Sanitary  Association, 
and  proposed  the  toast  of  the  Board  of  Health.  He  con- 
cluded his  speech :  "With  the  toast  of  the  Board  of  Health 
I  will  couple  the  name  of  a  noble  lord,  of  whose  earnestness 
in  works  of  benevolence  no  man  can  doubt,  and  who  has  the 
courage  on  all  occasions  to  face  the  cant  which  is  the  worst 
and  commonest  of  all — the  cant  about  the  cant  of  philan- 
thropy." 

Forster  records  that  "Lord  Shaftesbury  first  dined  with 
him  in  the  following  year  at  Tavistock  House."  They  re- 
mained friends  after  that,  but  their  association  was  never 
one  of  personal  intimacy.  Dickens  admired  Lord  Shaftes- 
'bury,  and  the  Earl  found  in  him  a  man  earnest  in  all  good 
works,  ready  at  all  times  to  assist  by  pen  and  voice  any 
cause  for  the  moral  or  physical  uplifting  of  his  fellow- 
creatures.  And  how  Dickens  did  assist  it  is  unnecessary 
to  point  out.  In  Household  Words,  in  All  the  Year  Round, 
he  again  and  again  supported  the  reforms  that  Lord 
Shaftesbury  advocated.  As,  for  instance,  his  articles  on  the 
Ragged  Schools. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 


liORD    JOHN    EUSSELIi 


Among  authors,  artists,  actors,  and  lawyers  Dickens 
formed  many  intimate  friendships.  There  was  one  class, 
however,  that  scarcely  found  any  place  at  all  in  his  circle. 
I  mean  the  politicians.  He  had  a  poor  opinion  of  them  as 
a  class.  Forster  tells  us  that  his  observations  while  a  re- 
porter in  the  Press  Gallery  at  the  House  of  Commons  had 
not  led  him  to  form  any  high  opinion  of  the  House  or  its 
heroes.  In  his  letters  he  often  speaks  contemptuously  of 
our  legislators,  and  there  are  many  similarly  contemptuous 
references  to  them  in  his  books,  and  in  his  articles  for 
HouseJiold  Words  and  All  the  Year  Round.  I  fear  that 
Dickens  lent  himself  a  little  too  readily  to  this  sort  of  non- 
constructive  criticism.  That  is  an  aside,  however.  There 
is  the  fact :  Dickens  had  a  contempt  for  our  Parliament  and 
its  heroes,  and  politicians  do  not  cut  any  considerable  figure 
in  the  Dickens  circle  in  consequence. 

There  were  exceptions,  of  course.  There  was  Lytton,  for 
instance,  but  his  political  activities  were  an  accident,  so  to 
speak.  He  came  into  the  circle  as  a  brother  author,  and 
in  that  respect  only  have  we  to  consider  him  in  his  relations 
with  Dickens.  Sir  Austen  La3^ard  was  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, too,  but  not  until  after  he  had  entered  the  Dickens 
circle,  and  his  political  activities  were  a  sort  of  regrettable 
lapse  from  good  tase  in  his  friend's  sight.  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury was  a  politician,  too,  but  he  was  one  of  the  exceptional 
legislators  who  saw  in  their  membership  of  Parhament  but 
enhanced  opportunities  of  doing  good.  Disraeli  he  knew 
quite  well  in  the  Gore  House  days,  but  never  liked  him  and 
never  had  much  to  do  with  him.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine 
Dickens  on  terms  of  friendship  with  so  cynical  an  oppor- 
tunist, and  one  is  not  the  least  bit  surprised  to  find  the 
novelist  writing  of  "the  Disraelis,  Richmonds,  and  the  other 
198 


LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL  199 

Impostors  and  Humbugs."     With  Gladstone  there  was  but 
the  merest  acquaintance. 

But  there  was  one  prominent  poHtician  for  whom  Dickens 
had  profound  respect  and  great'  personal  liking.  This  was 
Lord  John  Russell.  Apart,  for  the  moment,  from  their 
personal  friendship,  Lord  John  in  his  public  capacity  was 
regarded  by  Dickens  with  an  esteem  that  he  entertained  for 
no  other  statesman  or  politician  of  his  time.  In  1852 
Dickens  wrote  to  Foster:  "Lord  John's  note  confirms  me 
in  an  old  impression  that  he  is  worth  a  score  of  official 
men;  and  has  more  generosity  in  his  little  finger  than  a 
Government  usually  has  in  its  whole  Corporation."  Five 
years  later,  speaking  at  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Ware- 
housemen and  Clerks'  Schools,  he  proposed  the  health  of 
Lord  John,  the  President,  and  said: 

"He  should  do  nothing  so  superfluous  and  so  un- 
necessary as  to  descant  upon  liis  lordship's  many 
faithful,  long,  and  great  'public  services,  upon  the 
honour  and  integrity  with  which  he  had  pursued  his 
straightforward  public  course  through  every  difficulty, 
or  upon  the  manly,  gallant,  and  courageous  character, 
which  rendered  him  certain,  in  the  eyes  alike  of  friends 
and  opponents,  to  rise  with  every  rising  occasion,  and 
which,  like  the  seal  of  Solomon,  in  the  old  Arabian 
story,  enclosed  in  a  not  very  large  casket  the  soul  of 
a  giant." 

And  at  the  Liverpool  banquet  in  1869  he  said:  ".  .  . 
There  is  no  man  in  England  whom  I  more  respect  in  his 
public  capacity,  whom  I  love  more  in  his  private  capacity, 
or  from  whom  I  have  received  more  remarkable  proofs  of 
his  honour  and  love  of  literature." 

Lord  John  had  piloted  the  great  Reform  Bill  through  the 
House  of  Commons  in  Dickens's  twentieth  year,  and  the 
future  novelist  had  sat  in  the  press  gallery  recording  the 
historic  debates.  He  had  not  dreamed  then  that  some  day 
he  wo'-M  be  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  little  man  who 
was  fighting  the  People's  battle  so  staunchly,  but.  Radical 
that  he  already  was,  he  had  recognised  in  Lord  John  the 
true  champion  of  Progress,  and  had  formed  an  admiration 


200  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

for  him  that  lasted  till  the  end  of  his  Hfe.  Two  years  later 
he  had  reported  the  passage  of  the  Poor  Law  Reform  Bill 
in  which  again  Lord  John  had  taken  an  active  part. 

I  imagine  that  there  was  scarcely  a  principle  in  regard 
to  which  Dickens  was  not  in  agreement  with  Lord  John 
Russell.  England  never  had  a  more  consistent  champion 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty  than  Lord  John;  there  never 
was  a  more  tolerant  man  than  Dickens.  Lord  John  helped 
to  reform  our  Poor  Laws;  Dickens  did  even  more  than  the 
statesman  in  that  direction.  Lord  John  was  a  life-long  ad- 
vocate of  educational  reform;  there  was  no  subject  which 
Dickens  had  closer  to  his  heart.  But  there  was  another 
important  characteristic  that  earned  Dickens's  esteem.  In 
that  same  Liverpool  speech  from  which  I  have  already 
quoted  Dickens  said: 

"When  I  first  took  literature  as  my  profession  in 
England,  I  calmly  resolved  within  myself  that,  whether 
I  succeeded  or  whether  I  failed,  literature  should  be 
my  sole  profession.  It  appeared  to  me  at  that  time 
that  it  was  not  so  well  understood  in  England  as  it 
was  in  other  countries  that  literature  was  a  dignified 
profession  by  which  any  man  might  stand  or  fall.  I 
made  a  compact  with  myself  that  in  my  person  litera- 
ture should  stand  by  itself,  of  itself,  and  for  itself,  and 
there  is  no  consideration  on  earth  that  would  induce 
me  to  break  that  bargain." 

Now,  no  Prime  Minister  has  ever  done  more  to  encourage 
letters  and  the  arts  than  Lord  John  Russell.  Dickens  ac- 
knowledged his  "honour  and  love  of  literature"  in  that  same 
Liverpool  speech.  He  was  ever  ready  to  encourage  letters 
by  all  means  in  his  power.  He  was  an  author  of  distinction 
himself  and  a  friend  of  authors,  and  no  appeal  on  behalf 
of  letters  was  ever  made  to  him  in  vain.  It  was  the  grant- 
ing by  him  of  a  Civil  List  pension  to  Leigh  Hunt  in  1847 
that  altered  the  plan  of  the  theatricals  organised  by  Dickens 
for  tliat  author's  benefit.  The  purpose  had  hardly  been 
announced,  sa3^s  Forster,  "wlien,  with  a  statesman-like  atten- 
tion to  literature  and  its  followers  for  which  Lord  John 
Russell  has  been  eccentric  among  English  politicians,  a  Civil 


LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL  201 

List  pension  of  two  hundred  pounds  a  year  was  granted  to 
Leigh  Hunt." 

The  plan  was  modified  in  consequence,  and  the  proceeds 
of  the  performances  were  devoted,  after  a  certain  sum  had 
been  set  aside  for  the  purpose  of  clearing  Hunt  of  debt,  to 
the  benefit  of  the  author  of  "Paul  Pry"— John  Poole.  The 
latter  was  never  a  friend  of  Dickens's  in  any  real  sense,  but 
he  was  a  brilliant  playwright  who  had  fallen  on  hard  times, 
and  with  that  ever-glowing  sympathy  of  his  the  noveUst 
helped  him  all  he  could.  Three  years  after  these  perform- 
ances, when  the  money  raised  thereby  was  exhausted,  he 
appealed  to  Lord  John  Russell  to  help.  Lord  John  asked 
for  full  information,  and  tliis  is  what  Dickens  wrote  in 
reply : 

"Allow  me  to  thank  you  for  your  ready  and  kind 
reply  to  my  note,  and  to  put  you  in  possession  of  the 
exact  state  of  Mr.  Poole's  case.  .  .  .  For  some  years 
past  he  has  been  living  in  a  fifth  storey  in  a  house  in 
the  Rue  Neuve  Luxembourg  in  Paris  (on  the  proceeds 
of  an  amateur  theatrical  performance  for  his  benefit 
of  which  I  undertook  the  management  and  stewardship, 
and  which  I  dispensed  to  him  half-yearly)  ;  and  such  is 
the  nervous  affection  of  his  hands  particularly  that 
when  I  have  seen  him  there  trembling  and  staggering 
over  a  small  wood  fire  it  has  been  a  marvel  to  me, 
knowing  him  to  live  quite  alone,  how  he  ever  got  into 
or  out  of  his  clothes.  To  the  best  of  my  belief,  he  has 
no  relations  whomsoever.  He  must  either  have  starved 
or  gone  to  the  workhouse  (and  I  have  little  doubt  that 
he  would  have  done  the  former)  but  for  the  funds  I 
have  doled  out  to  him  which  were  exhausted  before 
you  generously  assisted  him  from  the  Queen's  Bounty. 
He  has  no  resources  of  any  kind — of  that  I  am  per- 
fectly sure.  In  the  sunny  time  of  the  day  he  puts  a 
melancholy  little  hat  on  one  side  of  his  head,  and  with 
a  little  stick  under  his  arm,  goes  hitching  himself 
abo\it  the  boulevards ;  but  for  any  power  he  has  of 
earning  a  livelihood  he  might  as  well  be  dead.  For 
three  years  I  have  been  in  constant  expectation  of  re- 
ceiving a  letter  from  the  portress  of  the  house  to  say 


202  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

that  his  ashes  and  those  of  his  wood  fire,  both  of  a 
very  shrunken  description,  had  been  found  lying  to- 
gether on  the  hearth.  But  he  has  hved  on  ;^  and  for  a 
few  hours  every  day  has  so  concealed  his  real  condition 
out  of  doors  that  many  French  authors  and  actors 
.  .  .  would  stand  amazed  to  know  what  I  now  tell  you. 
...  I  don't  think  he  would  hold  a  pension  very  long. 
I  need  not  add  that  he  sorely  needs  it — and  I  do  not 
doubt  that  the  public  are  well  acquainted  with  his  name 
and  works." 

That  letter  was   dated  December   18:   the  response  was 
prompt,  for  on  Christmas  Eve  Dickens  wrote  to  Lord  John : 

"I  have  conveyed  to  Mr.  Poole  by  to-night's  post  the 
joyful  intelligence  of  her  Majesty's  gracious  approval 
of  3^our  generous  suggestion  in  his  favour;  and  I  do 
not  doubt  that  he  will  endeavour  to  exj^ress  to  you 
(over  that  brighter  fire)  some  of  the  happiness  he  owes 
to  you." 

Three  years  later  we  find  him  writing  to  Lord  John  from 
Boulogne: 

"You  will  be  interested,  I  think,  to  hear  that  Poole 
lives  happily  on  his  pension,  and  lives  within  it.  He 
is  quite  incapable  of  any  mental  exertion,  and  what 
he  would  have  done  without  it  I  cannot  imagine.  I 
send  it  to  him  at  Paris  every  quarter.  It  is  some- 
thing, even  amid  the  estimation  in  which  you  are  held, 
which  is  but  a  foreshadowing  of  what  shall  be  by-and- 
by,  as  the  people  advance,  to  be  so  gratefully  remem- 
bered as  he,  with  the  best  reason,  remembers  you. 
Forgive  my  saying  this.  But  the  manner  of  that  trans- 
action, no  less  than  the  matter,  is  always  fresh  in  my 
memorv  in  association  with  3'our  name,  and  I  could  not 
help  it?' 

I  have  referred  at  length  to  this  incident — reflecting,  as 
it  does,  so  much  credit  upon  both  Dickens  and  Lord  John — 

1  He  lived  on  until  1872. 


LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL  203 

because  it  is  so  admirable  an  example  of  not  only  tliG  states- 
man's goodness  of  heart,  but  his  ever-glowing  sympathy 
with  letters  which  drew  Dickens  to  him  so  strongly. 

Lord  John  Russell  had  an  association — very  indirect,  but 
none  the  less  real — with  Dickens's  first  success,  Pickwick. 
The  Bath  scenes  in  that  book  are  among  the  very  best. 
They  reveal  an  astonishingly  intimate  knowledge  of  the  city 
and  its  people.  That  knowledge  was  gained  during  a  flying 
visit  paid  in  1835,  a  visit  of  which  Lord  John  was  the  direct 
cause.  He  made  a  tour  of  the  West  of  England  in  that 
year,  speaking  at  all  the  important  towns ;  and  young 
Dickens  followed  him  round  reporting  his  speeches  for  the 
"Morning  Chronicle."  His  reference  to  that  tour  at  the 
Press  Fund  dinner  thirty  years  later  all  the  world  knows. 

Lord  John  proceeded  from  Exeter  to  Bristol,  where  he 
spoke  at  a  dinner,  and  the  next  day  to  Bath,  Dickens  fol- 
lowing in  his  train.  So  that,  but  for  Lord  John  Russell, 
we  should  never  have  known  Angelo  Cyrus  Bantam,  Esq., 
M.C.,  or  the  Dowager  Lady  Snuphanuph,  or  Mr.  John 
Smauker;  we  should  not  have  been  introduced  to  the  "elite 
of  Ba-ath" ;  but  for  him  we  should  never  have  visited  the 
surgery  of  "Sawyer,  late  Nockemorf,"  at  Bristol,  or  tramped 
with  Sam  Wellcr  across  the  breezy  Downs  and  witnessed 
the  folding  of  the  carpet. 

How  Dickens  and  Lord  John  became  personally  ac- 
quainted I  do  not  know,  but  they  were  on  very  friendly 
terms  in  Dickens's  very  early  days  of  authorshi23.  They  did 
not  meet  very  frequently  in  social  life,  because,  of  course, 
Lord  John  was  absorbed  in  public  affairs  always,  but  we 
have  the  authority  of  Dickens's  daughter  and  sister-in-law 
for  it  that  the  statesman  was  "a  friend  whom  he  held  in 
the  highest  estimation  and  to  whom  he  was  always  grateful 
for  many  personal  kindnesses."  Several  of  his  letters  con- 
firm this,  being  expressions  of  gratitude  for  personal  kind- 
nesses, the  nature  of  which  is  not  indicated.  And  if  further 
evidence  of  his  regard  for  this  friend  were  needed  we  have 
it  in  the  fact  that  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities  was  dedicated  to 
him. 

The  friendship  continued  till  Dickens's  death.  So  late 
as  June  1869  we  find  Lord  John  writing:  "I  expect  Dickens 
to  visit  us.     We  went  to  see  hira  last  night  in  the  murder 


204  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

of  Nancy  by  Sites,  and  Mrs.  Gamp."  Some  years  after 
the  novelist's  death,  he  wrote  to  Forster:  "I  have  read 
them  (Dickens's  letters  quoted  by  Forster  in  his  Life  of 
his  friend)  with  delight  and  pain.  His  heart,  his  imagina- 
tion, his  qualities  of  painting  what  is  noble,  and  finding 
diamonds  hidden  far  away,  are  greater  here  than  even  his 
works  convey  to  me.  How  I  lament  he  was  not  spared  to 
us  longer.  I  shall  have  a  fresh  grief  when  he  dies  in  your 
volumes." 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

THOMAS   CARLYLE 

"It  is  almost  thirty-two  years  since  my  acquaintance  with 
him  began;  and  on  my  side,  I  may  say,  every  new  meeting 
ripened  it  into  more  and  more  clear  discernment  of  his 
rare  and  great  worth  as  a  brother  man:  a  most  cordial, 
sincere,  clear-sighted,  quietly  decisive,  just  and  loving  man: 
till  at  length  he  had  grown  to  such  a  recognition  with  me 
as  I  have  rarely  had  for  any  man  of  my  time." 

So  wrote  Thomas  Carlyle  when  Dickens  died.  To  Forster 
he  wrote:  "I  am  profoundly  sorry  for  you,  and,  indeed, 
for  myself,  and  for  us  all.  It  is  an  event  world-wide,  a 
unique  of  talents  suddenly  extinct,  and  has  *eclipsed,'  we, 
too,  may  say,  'the  harmless  gaiety  of  nations.'  No  death 
since  1866  has  fallen  on  me  with  such  a  stroke.  No  literary 
man's  hitherto  ever  did.  The  good,  the  gentle,  high-gifted, 
ever  friendly,  noble  Dickens — every  inch  of  him  an  Honest 
Man." 

Carlyle  truly  loved  Dickens.  They  had  much  in  common. 
They  were  both  great  humorists,  and,  therefore,  both  were 
men  of  profound  sympathy;  both  were  quickly  moved  to 
scorn  and  indignation  at  oppression  and  chicanery ;  both 
had  a  true  and  abiding  faith  in  their  fellow-men.  Carlyle 
was  undoubtedly,  as  the  mother  whom  he  loved  so  well  said, 
"gey  ill  to  live  with,"  yet,  though  his  biographer  has  done 
his  worst  for  him,  the  "sage  of  Chelsea"  is  still  revealed 
as  an  Honest  Man,  a  chivalrous  man,  and,  though  the  truth 
of  it  may  not  at  first  be  obvious,  a  tolerant  man  withal. 
It  is  easy  to  gibe  at  Carlyle,  and  it  is  also  rather  fashion- 
able. Somebody  once  said  of  him  that  he  preached  the 
gospel  of  Silence  in  forty  volumes.  That  was  rather  clever, 
but  it  was  rather  silly,  too.  It  was  true,  but  it  was  not  the 
205 


206  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

truth,  and  the  difference  is  enoraious.  And,  however  much 
"superior  people"  may  gibe  at  Carl3'le,  the  fact  stands  un- 
challengeable that  he  was  a  great  and  noble  man,  a  man  who 
suffered  privations  rather  than  be  untrue  to  himself,  who 
would  have  died  before  he  would  have  lied  or  done  a  dis- 
honest deed ;  a  man  who  believed  unshakably  in  the  innate 
goodness  of  human  nature,  and  never  feared  to  denounce 
evil  wheresover  he  found  it.  On  the  surface,  very  "diffi- 
cult," dj'speptic  that  he  was,  at  heart  a  true  Man. 

Dickens,  with  that  insight  of  his,  which  enabled  him  un- 
failingly to  see  the  real  man  in  a  friend,  saw  him  in  Carlyle 
and  loved  him.  Froude  tells  us  so.  He  sa3^s,  for  instance, 
that  in  1860  the  sage  was  fixed  to  his  garret  room,  rarely 
stirring  out,  except  to  ride,  and  dining  nowhere  save  now 
and  then  with  Forster  to  meet  only  Dickens,  "who  loved  him 
with  all  his  heart."  And  Forster  says  that  Carlyle  was  "a 
most  dear  friend,"  and  that  "there  was  no  one  whom  in  later 
life  he  honoured  so  much,  or  had  a  more  profound  regard 
for." 

In  1842,  when  Dickens  was  so  gallantly  fighting  for  in- 
ternational copyright  in  America,  Carlj-le  stood  by  him, 
and  wrote  a  letter  which  served  him  in  good  stead.  Their 
acquaintance  had  only  recently  begun  then,  but  that  act 
served  to  cement  the  friendship,  and  very  soon  we  find 
Carlyle  exercising  a  remarkable  influence  over  the  novelist. 
The  first  sign  of  this  appears  in  1844,  when,  metaphorically 
speaking,  Carlyle  is  at  his  elbow  all  the  time  he  is  writing 
The  Chimes,  and  w^e  find  him  writing  to  Forster:  "Shall  I 
confess  to  you,  I  particularly  want  Carlyle  above  all  to 
see  it  before  the  rest  of  the  world,  when  it  is  done?"  And 
then  he  proposes  the  reading  which  was  to  become  historic: 
"Don't  have  any  one,  this  particular  night,  to  dinner,  but 
let  it  be  a  summons  for  a  special  purpose  at  half-past  six. 
Carlyle  indispensable,  and  I  should  like  his  wife  of  all  things : 
her  judgment  would  be  invaluable."  Mrs.  Carlyle  did  not 
attend,  but  her  husband  did,  and  in  Maclise's  drawing  of 
the  scene,  he  is  shown  occupying  the  post  of  honour  at 
Dickens's  right  hand. 

A  few  3'ears  later  Hard  Times — a  book  that  reveals  the 
influence  of  the  sage  in  every  chapter — was  dedicated  to 
Carlyle,  and  eight  years   after  that,  saturated  with  "The 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  207 

French  Revolution,"  which  we  are  told  he  carried  with  him 
wherever  he  went,  ne  wrote  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities. 

Carlyle  reciprocated  the  regard,  as  we  have  seen,  and 
the  fact  is  the  more  worthy  of  note,  because  it  evidenced 
the  triumph  of  the  man  Dickens  over  the  novehst  Boz; 
for  Carlyle,  Scotch  Puritan  and  dyspeptic  that  he  was, 
assuredly  had  a  native  prejudice  against  Boz  the  novelist 
— against  fiction,  I  mean.  As,  for  instance,  in  1837,  he 
wrote:  "It  is  worth  noting  how  loath  we  are  to  read  great 
works,  how  much  more  willingly  we  cross  our  legs,  back  to 
candles,  feet  to  fire,  over  some  Pickwick,  or  lowest  trash  of 
that  sort.  The  reason  is  we  are  very  indolent,  very  wearied 
and  forlorn,  and  read  oftenest  chiefly  that  we  may  forget 
ourselves."  Even  so,  he  was  presently  constrained  to  admit 
that  Pickwick  was  not  such  trash  after  all.  Great  humorist 
that  he  was,  he  was  bound  to  recognise  the  genius  of  the 
book.  Thus,  by  and  by,  we  find  him  writing  to  Forster: 
"An  Archdeacon,  with  his  own  venerable  lips,  repeated  to 
me,  the  other  night,  a  strange  profane  story  of  a  clergyman 
who  had  been  administering  ghostly  consolation  to  a  sick 
person;  having  finished,  satisfactorily,  as  he  thought,  and 
got  out  of  the  room,  he  heard  the  sick  person  ejaculate, 
*Well,  thank  God,  Pickwick  will  be  out  in  ten  days,  any- 
way !' — this   is   dreadful." 

The  genuine  humour  of  Dickens  conquered  Carlyle,  and 
it  is  almost  startling  to  observe  how  often  he  quotes  from 
the  novels  in  his  letters  and  conversation.  David  Copper- 
field  was  an  especial  favourite,  and  for  Mrs.  Gummidge  he 
seems  to  have  had  a  high  regard.  In  1849  we  find  him  writ- 
ing to  his  wife  after  one  of  their  unhappy  estrangements — 
or,  rather,  misunderstandings:  "Alas,  my  poor  little 
Goody!  these  are  not  good  times  at  all.  .  .  .  Your  poor 
hand  and  heart,  too,  were  in  a  sad  case  on  Friday.  Let 
me  hope  you  have  slept  well  since  that,  given  up  'thinking 
of  the  old  'un,'  and  much  modified  the  'Gummidge'  view  of 
affairs.  Sickness  and  distraction  of  nerves  is  a  good  excuse 
for  almost  any  degree  of  despondency.  .  .  .  But  we  can  by 
no  means  permit  ourselves  a  philosophy  a  la  Gummidge — 
'poor  lone  critturs'  though  we  be."  It  is  recorded  also  by 
Forster  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  dinner  held  to  celebrate 
the  start  of  Copperfi£ld,  "it  was  a  delight  to  see  the  en- 


208  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

joyment  of  Dickens  at  Carl^'le's  laugliing  reply  to  ques- 
tions about  liis  health,  that  he  was,  in  the  language  of  Mr. 
Peggotty's  housekeeper,  a  lorn  lone  creature,  and  everything 
went  contrairy  with  him." 

We  have  it,  too,  on  Forster's  authority,  that  Carlyle  very 
highly  appreciated  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities  and  Great  Ex- 
pectations, and  Forster  records  that  "a  dear  friend  now 
gone  would  laughingly  relate  what  outcry  there  used  to  be 
on  the  night  of  the  week  when  a  number  was  due,  for  'that 
Pip  nonsense !'  and  what  roars  of  laughter  followed,  though 
at  first  it  was  entirely  put  aside  as  not  on  any  account 
to  have  time  wasted  over  it."  Yes,  Dickens  conquered  Car- 
l3^1e  by  sheer  force  of  humour  and  sympathy,  and  Carlyle 
loved  him  for  it. 

It  was  in  1840,  at  a  dinner  at  the  Stanleys',  that  they 
first  met,  and  Carlyle  records  his  impressions  of  the  young 
novelist  as  follows :  "There  at  the  dear  cost  of  a  shattered 
set  of  nerves,  and  head  set  whirling  for  the  next  eight-and- 
forty  hours,  I  did  see  Lords  and  lions.  .  .  .  Know,  Pick- 
wick too  was  of  the  same  dinner  party,  though  they  did  not 
seem  to  heed  him  over  much.  He  is  a  fine  little  fellow — 
Boz,  I  think:  clear  blue  intelligent  eyes  that  he  arches 
amazingly,  large,  protrusive,  rather  loose  mouth,  a  face  of 
the  most  extreme  mohiUty,  which  he  shuttles  about — eye- 
brows, eyes,  mouth  and  all — in  a  very  singular  manner  while 
speaking.  Surmount  them  with  a  loose  coil  of  common 
coloured  hair,  and  set  it  on  a  sm_all  compact  figure  very 
small  and  dressed  a  la  D'Orsay  rather  than  well — this  is 
Pickwick.  For  the  rest,  a  quiet,  shrewd-looking  little  fellow, 
who  seems  to  guess  pretty  well  what  he  is  and  what  others 
are." 

It  cannot  be  counted  an  unfavourable  first  impression. 
Further  meetings  were  brought  about  by  Forster — who,  of 
course,  was  one  of  Carlyle's  most  trusted  friends,  as  he  was 
everybody  else's — and  as  the  two  men  became  more  intimate 
and  grew  to  know  each  other,  there  arose  that  mutual  re- 
gard which  presently  ripened  into  sincere  affection.  They 
met  very  often — at  Gore  House,  among  other  places,  as  we 
have  seen — and  Dickens  always  treated  his  friend  with 
easy  gaiety,  yet  with  a  deference  that  was  unassumed. 
Carlyle  seems   to  have  been   at  home   and  at  his   ease  in 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  209 

Dickens's  company,  and  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  recalls  a 
dinner  at  which  the  only  company  were  Forster,  Dickens, 
Carlyle  and  himself,  when  Dickens  "played  round"  the  stage 
as  Garrick  did  round  Johnson — affectionately  in  high  good 
humour  and  wit,  "and  I  could  well  see  much  pleasing  the 
old  lion." 

It  was  a  high  tribute  to  his  regard  for  the  novelist  when, 
in  1863,  Carlyle  attended  one  of  Dickens's  readings  "to 
the  complete  upsetting  of  my  evening  habitudes  and  spiritual 
composure."  But  he  enjoyed  it,  despite  himself — "Dickens 
does  do  it  capitally  such  as  it  is,  acts  better  than  any 
Macready  in  the  world ;  a  whole  tragic  comic  heroic  theatre 
visible,  performing  under  one  hat,  and  keeping  us  laughing 
— in  a  sorry  way  some  of  us  thought — the  whole  night." 

Yes,  Dickens  conquered  Carlyle. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

BULWER  LYTTON  AND  LAMAN   BLANCHARD 

One  of  the  most  brilliant  stars  in  the  Gore  House  con- 
stellation was  Edward  Bulwcr.  With  him  in  these  days 
Dickens  formed  a  friendship  that  was  quite  unallo3^ed,  and 
lasted  right  until  the  end  without  any  breach  or  lessening 
of  regard.  It  must  be  confessed  that  at  first  blush  this 
friendship  is  rather  difficult  to  understand.  Superficially, 
Lytton  had  few  of  those  qualities  that  one  imagines  appealed 
to  Dickens.  There  is  very  little  evidence  in  his  books  or 
his  plays  of  those  broad  human  sympathies  that  we  find  in 
Dickens.  The  impression  is  one  of  considerably  more  head 
than  heart.  But  it  is  quite  unjust  thus  to  dismiss  Lytton. 
Had  circumstances  behaved  a  little  more  kindly  towards 
him  he  would  have  been  a  very  different  man  from  what  he 
was,  and  the  world  might  have  been  far  more  indebted  to 
him  than  it  is.  A  spoiled  child,  he  early  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  write  against  time  for  money,  whilst  for  very 
many  years  his  life  was  embittered  by  the  tragic  failure  of 
his  marriage,  and  the  persecution  he  suffered  from  his  wife. 
The  only  wonder  is  that  his  earlier  books  do  not  bear  more 
traces  than  they  do  of  having  been  "pot  boilers,"  and  that 
his  later  work  is  not  overclouded  with  cynicism.  Bred  in  a 
different  school,  blessed  with  a  happy  marriage,  Lytton 
might  have  been  a  very  great  man.  I  think  H,  F.  Chorley 
struck  the  right  note  when  he  wrote,  Lytton  "has  a  thor- 
oughly satin  character;  but  then  it  is  the  richest  satin.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  fine  energetic,  inquisitive  mind,  if  I  mistake  not,  that 
has  been  blighted  and  bent  too  soon." 

"All  these  things   contributed  to  make  me  what  I  am," 

wrote  Dickens  once  when  recalling  his  boyhood,  and  so  might 

Lytton  have  written.     His  life's  story  is  indeed  a  very  sad 

one;  loneliness  and  lack  of  symjoath}^  dogged  him  always, 

210 


Lfnu)  Lytton 


B.  LYTTON  AND  L.  BLANCHARD     211 

until  in  his  later  years  he  found  much  consolation  in  the 
affection  of  his  son,  Robert.  His  life,  says  his  grandson, 
the  present  Earl  Lytton,  was  on  the  whole  a  singularly 
lonely  one.  "Neither  in  literature  nor  in  politics  did  he 
belong  to  any  intimate  set.  He  went  little  into  Society,  and 
he  never  sta3^ed  for  many  months  in  the  same  place."  His 
domestic  tragedy  was  no  mere  "skeleton  in  the  cupboard"; 
it  dogged  him  whithersoever  he  went ;  and  the  wonder  is  that 
he  achieved  half  so  much  as  he  did. 

But  his  nature  at  bottom  was  good.  Prof.  Jowett  says, 
"He  left  upon  me  an  impression  of  genuine  kindness,  and 
endless  activity  of  mind,  of  great  knowledge,  and  of  a  noble 
interest  in  literature  and  literary  men."  Many  tales  of  his 
kindness  are  told.  For  Macready,  for  instance,  he  did  much 
when  the  actor  was  struggling  at  Covent  Garden.  He  was 
chiefly  instrumental,  too,  in  obtaining  a  pension  for  Tom 
Hood;  whilst  we  shall  see  how  he  threw  himself  into  the 
Guild  of  Literature  and  Art  scheme.  No  man,  in  fact, 
ever  showed  more  loyalty  to  his  art,  or  was  more  ready  to 
assist  a  brother  artist,  and  to  say  this  of  any  man  is  to 
give  him  high  praise.  The  present  Earl  Lytton  says, 
"There  were  many  who  loved  him  truly,"  and  it  is  quite 
true.  The  greatest  friend  of  his  life  was  John  Forster,  for 
whom  he  had  a  very  deep  and  lasting  affection,  and  prob- 
ably next  to  Forster  in  his  regard  came  Dickens,  with  whom 
he  really  had  more  in  common  than  is  apparent.  First  and 
foremost,  I  think,  so  far  as  Dickens,  at  any  rate,  was  con- 
cerned, there  was  the  high  regard  in  which  they  both  held 
their  art.  It  was  always  a  very  strong  point  with  Dickens, 
this  jealousy  for  the  dignity  and  reputation  of  his  art. 
Literature  was  to  Dickens  a  noble  calling,  not  at  any  time 
to  be  held  lightly,  and  in  this  he  and  Lytton  were  in  com- 
plete sympathy.  Of  him  he  was  able  to  say :  "In  the  path 
we  both  tread  I  have  uniformly  found  him  from  the  first 
the  most  generous  of  men;  quick  to  encourage,  slow  to  dis- 
parage, ever  anxious  to  assert  the  order  of  which  he  is  so 
great  an  ornament ;  never  condescending  to  shuffle  it  off,  and 
leave  it  outside  state  rooms,  as  a  Mussulman  might  leave  his 
slippers  outside  a  mosque." 

Then,  of  course,  there  was  their  joint  interest  in  the  Guild 
of  Literature  and  Art,  which  was  brought  into  being  and 


212  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

given  a  degree  of  vitality  for  many  years,  as  a  result  of 
their  activity  and  earnestness.  Another  interest  that  they 
had  in  common  was  the  study  of  the  occult.  Tliis  had  a 
stronger  hold  over  Lytton  than  over  Dickens,  but  of  the 
latter's  interest  in  it  there  is  ample  evidence.  And  finally 
the  mutual  friendship  of  Forster  must  have  been  a  strong 
tie. 

Mr.  R.  Renton  surmises  that  Lytton  and  Dickens  first 
met  at  the  house  of  Colborn,  the  publisher.  He  is  probably 
correct,  but,  in  any  case,  we  are  safe  in  assuming  that  the 
meeting  was  brought  about  by  Forster.  And  it  was  in  the 
early  days  of  Dickens's  fame,  because  in  Macready's  Diary 
for  the  late  'tliirties  we  find  him  recording  several  visits 
paid  to  his  green  room  by  the  two  novehsts,  wliilst  Forster 
tells  us  that  in  1840  Lj'tton  was  one  of  the  many  friends 
with  whom  there  were  many  social  foregatherings,  adding, 
"Of  the  genius  of  the  author  of  Telham'  and  'Eugene  Aram' 
he  had,  early  and  late,  the  highest  admiration,  and  he  took 
occasion  to  express  it  during  the  present  year  in  a  new 
preface  which  he  published  to  Oliver  Twist."^ 

But  although  they  were  very  friendly  from  the  first,  and 
met  often,  it  was  their  association  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art  that  brought  about  their 
intimacy.  "In  the  year  of  the  establisluncnt  of  Household 
Words,  Dickens  resumed  Avhat  I  have  called  his  splendid 
strolling  on  behalf  of  a  scheme  for  the  advantage  of  men 
of  letters,  to  which  a  great  brother  author  had  given  the 
sanction  of  his  name  and  genius."  In  these  words  Forster 
introduces  the  Guild.  Recent  experience  of  the  success  of 
the  theatrical  performances  in  aid  of  Hunt  and  Poole  and 
Knowles  "had  shoAvn  what  the  public  interest  in  this  kind 
of  amusement  might  place  within  reach  of  its  providers; 
and  there  came  to  be  discussed  the  possibility  of  making 
permanent  such  help  as  had  been  afforded  to  fellow-writers, 
by  means  of  an  endowment  that  should  not  be  mere  charity, 
but  should  combine  something  of  both  pension-list  and  col- 

>"Sir  Edward  Bulwer's  admirable  and  most  powerful  novel  of  'Paul 
Clifford.'  "  See  Preface  to  Third  Edition.  A  similar  complimentarj'-  reference 
to  Dickens  was  made  by  Lytton  in  his  Preface  to  "Night  and  Morning"  in 
1845,  where  he  wrote  of  "that  popular  and  pre-eminent  observer  of  the  age 
in  which  we  live,"  intimating  in  a  note  that  the  reference  was  to  Dickens. 


B.  LYTTON  AND  L.  BLANCHARD     213 

lege-lectureship,  without  tho  drawbacks  of  either.  It  was 
not  enough  considered  that  schemes  for  self-help,  to  be 
successful,  require  from  those  they  are  meant  to  benefit,  not 
only  a  general  assent  to  their  desirability,  but  zealous  co- 
operation. Too  readily  assuming  what  should  have  had 
more  thorough  investigation,  the  enterprise  was  set  on  foot, 
and  the  'Guild  of  Literature  and  Art'  originated  at  Kneb- 
worth." 

The  scheme  undoubtedly  was  the  child  of  Dickens's  brain, 
and  he  took  it  up  with  all  the  enthusiasm  Avhich  character- 
ised him  in  everything  he  ever  undertook,  but  Lytton  was 
scarcely  less  enthusiastic.  They  had  seen  enough  to  convince 
them  of  the  need  for  some  such  scheme.  Tom  Hood,  Leigh 
Hunt,  John  Poole,  Sheridan  Knowles — all  had  been  helped 
nobly  by  brother  artists,  and  Dickens  and  Lytton  were  de- 
termined to  make  an  effort  to  place  such  assistance  on  a 
permanent  and  organised  basis.  It  was  the  tragic  case  of 
poor  Laman  Blanchard  that  actuated  them  most  of  all. 
Blanchard  was  a  friend  of  both  men:  he  was  one  of  that 
select  gathering  at  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  which  listened  to 
Dickens's  reading  of  The  Chimes.     Of  liim  Lytton  wrote: 

"To  most  of  those  who  have  mixed  generally  with 
the  men  who  in  our  day  have  chosen  literature  as  a 
profession,  the  name  of  Laman  Blanchard  brings  recol- 
lections of  peculiar  tenderness  and  regret.  .  .  .  They 
recall  the  memory  of  a  competitor  without  envy,  a 
partisan  without  gall ;  firm  as  the  firmest  in  the  main- 
tenance of  his  own  opinions;  but  gentle  as  the  gentlest 
in  the  judgment  he  passed  on  others.  Whom  among 
our  London  brotherhood  of  letters  does  not  miss  that 
simple  cheerfulness,  that  inborn  exquisite  urbanity, 
that  child-like  readiness  to  be  pleased,  with  all  that 
happy  tendency  to  panygerise  for  merit  and  to  be 
lenient  to  every  fault  .  .  .  who,  in  convivial  meetings 
does  not  miss  and  will  not  miss  for  ever  that  sweetness 
of  those  unpretending  talents,  the  earnestness  of  that 
honesty  which  seemed  unconscious,  it  was  worn  so 
lightly — the  mild  influence  of  that  exuberant  kindness 
which  softened  the  acrimony  of  any  disputants  and 
reconciled  the  secret  animosities  of  jealous  rivals?" 


214  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

And  here  we  may  appropriately  quote  a  letter  of  Dickens's 
to  Blanchard,  as  showing  the  affection  in  which  the  Author 
of  Pickwick  held  him: 

"I  cannot  thank  j^ou  enough  for  the  beautiful  man- 
ner and  the  true  spirit  of  f riendsliip  in  which  you  have 
noticed  my  Carol.  But  I  must  thank  you  because  you 
have  filled  my  heart  up  to  the  brim  and  it  is  running 
over. 

"You  meant  to  give  me  great  pleasure,  dear  fellow, 
and  you  have  done  it.  The  tone  of  your  elegant  and 
fervent  praise  has  touched  me  in  the  tenderest  place. 
I  cannot  write  about  it,  and  as  to  talking  of  it,  I  could 
no  more  do  that  than  a  dumb  man.  I  have  derived 
inexpressible  gratification  from  what  I  know  was  a 
labour  of  love  on  your  part.    And  I  can  never  forget  it. 

"When  I  think  it  likely  that  I  may  meet  you  (per- 
haps at  Ainsworth's  on  Frida}-?)  I  shall  slip  a  Carol 
into  my  pocket  and  ask  3"ou  to  put  it  among  your 
books  for  my  sake.  You  will  never  like  it  the  less  for 
having  made  it  the  means  of  so  much  happiness  to  me. 

"Alwavs,  my  dear  Blanchard,  faithfully,  j^our 
friend — —'' 

Born  in  1804,  Blanchard  early  achieved  notice  as  a  writer 
of  great  promise,  but,  handicapped  by  a  lack  of  this  world's 
goods,  he  was  compelled  to  lay  aside  liis  higher  gifts,  and 
devote  himself  to  popular  journalism.  Yet,  all  the  time, 
we  are  told,  he  looked  foi'ward  to  the  period  when  he  might 
realise  the  cherished  dreams  of  his  j^outh,  "escape  from  his 
hurried  compositions  for  the  day  and  the  hour,  and  return 
into  his  inner  self  and  there  meditate  the  production  of  some 
work  which  might  justify  the  critics'  belief  in  the  promise 
of  his  early  efforts."  But  it  was  not  to  be,  and  in  1845 
he  ended  his  life  by  his  own  hand. 

It  was  the  memory  of  poor  Laman  Blanchard  that  spurred 
Dickens  and  Lytton  on  to  establish  the  Guild  of  Literature 
and  Art.  They  determined  that  if  they  could  prevent  it 
no  struggling  author  or  artist  should  again  be  placed  in 
the  same  predicament.  "I  do  devoutly  believe,"  wrote 
Dickens  to  Lytton,  "that  this  plan,  carried  by  the  support 


B.  LYTTON  AND  L.  BLANCHARD     215 

which  I  trust  will  be  given  to  it,  will  change  the  status  of 
the  literary  man  in  England,  and  make  a  revolution  in  his 
position  which  no  government,  no  power  on  earth  but  his 
own,  could  ever  effect.  I  have  implicit  confidence  in  the 
scheme — so  splendidly  begun — if  we  carry  it  out  with  a 
steadfast  energy.  I  have  a  strong  conviction  that  we  hold 
in  our  hands  the  peace  and  honour  of  men  of  letters  for 
centuries  to  come,  and  that  you  are  destined  to  be  their 
best  and  most  enduring  benefactor.  .  .  .  Oh,  what  a  pro- 
cession of  new  years  may  walk  out  of  all  this  for  the  class 
we  belong  to  after  we  are  dust."  It  was  a  noble  scheme, 
which  failed  only  because,  as  Forster  puts  it,  "the  support 
indispensable  to  success  was  not  as  Dickens  too  sanguinely 
hoped,  given  to  it  by  literary  men  themselves."  In  1897 
the  Guild  had  to  be  dissolved,  and  by  Act  of  Parliament  its 
endowment  was  divided  between  the  Royal  Literary  Fund 
and  the  Artists'  General  Benevolent  Institution.  It  had 
degenerated  into  a  mere  charity  wliich  was  exactly  what  its 
promoters  had  been  most  anxious  to  avoid. 

The  Guild  was  inaugurated  at  Kncbworth,  where  three 
private  performances  were  given  of  "Every  Man  in  His 
Humour,"  Lytton  bearing  the  whole  of  the  expenses.  This 
was  in  November  1850.  It  was  decided  to  give  further 
public  performances  in  aid  of  the  scheme  in  London  and 
the  provinces.  Lytton  agreed  to  write  a  five-act  comedy, 
and  Dickens  a  farce.  Lytton  fulfilled  his  part  of  the  bar- 
gain, and  produced  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem,"  but  Dickens 
had  to  "cry  off,"  and  "Mr.  Nightingale's  Diary,"  by  Mark 
Lemon,  was  substituted,  Dickens,  however,  contributing  so 
much  fun  to  it  that  it  was  eventually  billed  as  "by  Mr. 
Charles  Dickens  and  Mr.  Mark  Lemon." 

The  first  performance,  at  Devonshire  House,  on  Wednes- 
day, Jvme  18,  1851,  in  the  presence  of  the  Queen  and  Prince 
Consort,  was  a  very  brilliant  affair,  and  the  subsequent  tour 
was  a  great  success.  At  Manchester,  which  was  the  last 
place  but  one  visited,  a  public  dinner  was  held,  and  Lytton 
attended.  "Bulwer,"  wrote  Dickens  to  Forster,  "spoke  bril- 
liantly at  the  Manchester  dinner,  and  his  earnestness  and 
determination  about  the  Guild  was  most  impressive.  It 
carried  everything  before  it." 

The  writing  of  a  comedy  did  not  end  Lytton's  interest 


216  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

in  the  Guild  by  a  very  long  way.  In  1854  he  carried  through 
Parliament  a  Bill  to  incorporate  it,  and  in  1863  he  made 
a  free  gift  of  a  piece  of  land  upon  liis  estate  upon  which 
three  houses  were  built  to  form  residences  for  more  needy 
authors  or  artists.  When  these  houses  were  opened  the 
members  of  the  Guild  visited  them,  and  were  afterwards 
entertained  at  Knebworth  by  Lytton,  whose  health  was  pro- 
posed by  Dickens : 

"In  thanking  him  for  the  toast  which  he  has  done  us 
the  honour  to  propose,  allow  me  to  correct  an  error 
into  which  he  has  fallen.  Allow  me  to  state  that  these 
houses  never  could  have  been  built  but  for  his  zealous 
and  valuable  co-operation,  and  also  that  the  pleasant 
labour  out  of  wliich  they  have  arisen  would  have  lost 
one  of  its  greatest  charms  and  strongest  impulses,  if 
it  had  lost  his  ever-ready  sympathy  with  that  class  in 
which  he  has  risen  to  the  foremost  rank,  and  of  which 
he  is  the  brightest  ornament. 

"Now  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  giving  utterance  to  the 
feelings  of  my  brothers  and  sisters  in  literature  in 
proposing  'Health,  long  life,  and  prosperity  to  our 
distinguished  host.'  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  know 
very  well  that  when  the  health,  life,  and  beauty  now 
overflowing  these  halls  shall  have  fled,  crowds  of  people 
will  come  to  see  the  place  where  he  lived  and  wrote. 
Setting  aside  the  orator  and  statesman — for  happily 
we  know  no  party  here  but  this  agreeable  party — set- 
ting aside  all  this,  you  know  very  well,  that  this  is  the 
home  of  a  very  great  man  whose  connection  with  Hert- 
fordshire every  other  county  in  England  will  envy  for 
many  a  long  year  to  come.  You  know  that  when  this 
hall  is  dullest  and  emptiest  you  can  make  it  when  you 
please  brightest  and  fullest  by  peopling  it  with  the 
creations  of  his  brilliant  fancy.  Let  us  all  wish  to- 
gether that  they  may  be  many  more — for  the  more  they 
are  the  better  it  will  be,  and,  as  he  always  excels  him- 
self, the  better  they  will  be.  I  ask  you  to  listen  to 
their  praises  and  not  to  mine,  and  to  let  them,  and  not 
me,  propose  their  health." 


B.  LYTTON  AND  L.  BLANCHARD     217 

Dickens  and  Lytton  had  been  excellent  friends  from  the 
begining,  but  their  association  with  the  Guild  of  Literature 
and  Art  naturally  brought  them  very  close  together  indeed, 
and  henceforth  they  were  on  the  most  affectionate  terms. 
They  exchanged  visits  frequently,  and  there  were  few  whom 
Dickens  welcomed  more  gladly  at  Gadshill. 

In  1851,  whilst  the  rehearsals  for  the  Guild  performances 
were  in  progress,  Macready  left  the  stage.  Lytton  pre- 
sided at  the  banquet  which  was  given  in  the  actor's  honour, 
and  Dickens  proposed  his  health  in  a  glowing  speech.  On 
November  2,  1867,  Lytton  was  in  the  chair  at  the  great 
banquet  which  was  given  to  Dickens  on  the  eve  of  his  de- 
parture for  his  American  reading  tour,  and  in  proposing 
the  Guest's  health  paid  an  affectionate  tribute  to  his  great 
literary  rival  and  personal  friend  who  had  helped  to  refine 
humanity  "by  tears  that  never  enfeeble  and  laughter  that 
never  degrades."  Before  we  come  to  note  briefly  the  purely 
literary  associations  of  the  friends,  it  is  interesting  to  ob- 
serve that  in  November  1858  they  were  rival  candidates  for 
the  Lord  Rectorship  of  Glasgow  University,  a  third  candi- 
date being  another  of  Dickens's  most  esteemed  friends,  the 
famous  Lord  Shaftesbury.  And  the  result  of  the  poll  was 
Lytton  216;  Shaftesbury  203;  Dickens  68. 

Dickens  had  a  very  high  opinion  of  Lytton's  judgment 
in  regard  to  his  art,  and  allowed  it  to  influence  him  con- 
siderably. Over  and  over  again  we  find  him  referring  to 
Lytton's  criticism  of  this  book  and  that,  always  expressing 
gratification  if  the  criticism  is  favourable  and  always 
speaking  of  anything  in  the  shape  of  adverse  criticism  with 
the  profoundest  respect.  But  it  is  generally  admitted  that 
Lytton's  judgment  was  at  fault  in  the  case  of  Great  Ex- 
pectations and  that  Dickens  did  unwisely  in  acting  upon  it. 
*'You  T\dll  be  surprised,"  he  wrote  to  Forster,  "to  hear  that 
I  have  changed  the  end  of  Great  Expectations  from  and 
after  Pip's  return  to  Joe's,  and  finding  his  little  likeness 
there.  Bulwer,  who  has  been,  as  I  think  you  know,  ex- 
traordinarily taken  by  the  book,  so  strongly  urged  it  upon 
me,  after  reading  the  proofs,  and  supported  his  view  with 
such  good  reasons,  that  I  resolved  to  make  the  change.  .  .  . 
I  have  put  in  as  pretty  a  little  bit  of  writing  as  I  could,  and 
I  have  no  doubt  the  story  will  be  more  acceptable  through 


218  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

the  alteration."  Forster  comments  t  "Tliis  turned  out  to 
be  the  case,  but  the  first  ending  nevertheless  seems  to  be 
more  consistent  with  the  drift,  as  well  as  natural  working 
out,  of  the  tale."  The  first  ending  left  Pip  a  lonely  man, 
but,  as  George  Gissing  saj^s,  "by  the  irony  of  fate  he  was 
induced  to  spoil  his  work  through  a  brother  novelist's  desire 
for  a  happy  ending — a  strange  thing  indeed  to  befall 
Dickens." 

It  would  be  easy  to  give  man}"  quotations  from  Lytton 
and  from  Dickens  showing  liow  highl}"  each  esteemed  the 
other's  art,  but  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  never  did  two 
competitors  in  the  race  for  fame  respect  each  other  more 
truly — never  were  two  literary  men  more  free  from 
jealousies. 

In  1861  Lytton  wrote,  at  Dickens's  earnest  request,  a 
serial  story  for  All  the  Year  Round.  This  was  "A  Strange 
Story,"  which  followed  Great  Expectations.  Unfortunateh', 
it  did  not  please  the  readers  of  All  the  Year  Round,  and  it 
fell  flat. 

It  only  needs  to  be  added  that  Dickens  entertained  for 
his  friend's  son,  Robert,  a  very  high  regard,  and  was  de- 
lighted to  welcome  him  as  a  contributor  to  All  the  Year 
Round. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

TENNYSON 

To  these  early  days  in  particular  belongs  the  friendship 
with  Tennyson.  It  lasted  till  the  end,  but  it  was  in  the 
early  'forties  that  they  saw  most  of  each  other.  After  his 
marriage  in  1850  the  poet  practically  dropped  out  of  the 
Circle,  and  there  is  recorded  only  one  instance  of  his  subse- 
quently rejoining  it.  That  was  in  June  1851  when  he  at- 
tended the  Copperfield  dinner  at  the  Star  and  Garter,  Rich- 
mond. He  was  then  livmg  at  Twickenham,  but  in  1853  he 
settled  at  Freshwater,  and  thenceforward  he  and  Dickens 
met  but  rarely.  Indeed,  it  is  remarkable  to  note  that  there 
is  no  evidence  that  they  met  even  when  Dickens  visited  the 
Isle  of  Wight. 

The  friendship,  however,  was  never  an  intimate  one. 
Dickens  had  a  great  hking  for  the  poet  and  a  tremendous 
admiration  for  his  poetry.  "He  never  faltered  in  his  allegi- 
ance to  Tennyson,"  says  Forster;  and  in  another  place, 
"To  Alfred  Tennyson,  through  all  the  friendly  and  familiar 
days  I  am  describing,  he  gave  fuU  allegiance  and  honoured 
welcome."  Mary  Boyle  tells  us :  "One  day  I  went  with  his 
two  daughters  .  .  .  and  their  aunt  to  meet  him  at  the 
station.  Lifting  up  the  hand-bag  which  he  always  carried, 
he  exclaimed :  'Here,  girls,  I  have  a  treat  for  you — Tenny- 
son's magnificent  poem  of  "The  Idylls  of  the  King."  Is  it 
not  glorious  to  think  that  having  written  for  so  many  years, 
a  man  should  now  bring  forth  perhaps  the  noblest  of  his 
works?'  "    Of  the  "Idylls,"  he  wrote  to  Forster: 

"How  fine   the   'Idylls'   are!   Lord!   what   a   blessed 

thing  it  is  to  read  a  man  who  can  write !     I  thought 

nothing  could  be  grander   than   the   first  poem   till   I 

came  to  the  third;  but  when  I  had  read  the  last,  it 

219 


220  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

seemed  to  be  absolutely  unapproachcd  and  unapproach- 
able." 

I  am  able  to  state,  on  the  authority  of  the  poet's  son,  that 
the  admiration  was  mutual.  "Dickens  profoundly  admired 
my  Father,"  writes  Lord  Tenn^^son.  "My  father  admired 
Dickens,  and  thought  Pickwick  his  most  original  work.  He 
did  not  like  his  pathos,  except  in  one  case,  that  of  Old 
Cheeseman,  of  which  story  he  thought  highly." 

Tennyson  loved  London  as  much  as  Dickens  did,  though 
his  knowledge  of  it  was  not  as  "extensive  and  peculiar." 
"He  always  delighted  in  the  'central  roar'  of  London,"  says 
the  present  Lord  Tennyson  in  his  biography  of  his  father. 
"Whenever  he  and  I  went  to  London,  one  of  the  first  tilings 
we  did  was  to  walk  to  the  Strand  and  Fleet  Street."  He 
adds  that  his  father  would  often  dine  \nih  his  friends  at 
the  Cock  and  other  taverns,  and  "a  perfect  dinner  was  a 
beefsteak,  a  potato,  a  pint  of  port,  and  afterwards  a  pipe 
(never  a  cigar).  .  .  .  Very  genial  evenings  they  were,  with 
plenty  of  anecdote  and  wit,  and  'thrust  and  parry  of  bright 
monostick.'  "  Dickens  and  Forster  and  Maclise  were  often 
among  the  company  on  such  occasions. 

There  was  a  curious  link  between  the  novelist  and  the 
poet,  for  in  his  early  days,  the  latter  had  lived  at  58 
Lincoln's  Lm  Fields,  under  the  same  roof  as  Forster.  In 
March  1843  Dickens  presented  Tennj'son  with  a  set  of  his 
works,  sending  the  following  letter  with  the  gift: 

"My  dear  Tennyson, 

"For  the  love  I  bear  j^ou  as  a  man  whose 
writings  enlist  my  whole  heart  and  nature  in  admiration 
of  their  Truth  and  Beauty,  set  these  books  upon  your 
shelves ;  believing  that  you  have  no  more  earnest  and 
sincere  homage  than  mine, 

"Faithfully  and  Gratefully  your  Friend, 

"Charles  Dickens." 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 


A    GROUP    OF    PUBLISHERS 


There  remains  one  small  group  who  may  be  spoken  of 
before  we  accompany  the  novelist  on  his  American  tours. 
Several  publishers  were  prominent  among  his  friends. 
There  were  misunderstandings  with  some  of  them,  but  only 
on  business  grounds,  and  the  friendsliips  were  not  seriously 
damaged. 

First,  naturally,  we  speak  of  Chapman  and  Hall.  And 
we  will  reverse  the  order  in  which  all  the  world  ever  speaks  of 
them,  for  Hall  was  the  first  to  meet  Dickens.  The  incident 
is  a  very  interesting  one,  constituting  one  of  the  red-letter 
events  in  the  novelist's  life.  One  evening  in  1833  young 
Charles  Dickens,  a  newspaper  reporter,  stealthily,  with  fear 
and  trembling,  dropped  into  a  dark  letter-box  in  a  dark  office 
up  a  dark  court  in  Fleet  Street,  the  MS.  of  a  short  story.  It 
was  his  first  bid  for  fame.  Some  time  afterwards,  in  Decem- 
ber of  that  same  year,  he  purchased  at  a  shop  in  the  Strand 
a  copy  of  the  "Old  Montlily  Magazine,"  and  therein  saw 
that  same  story  in  all  the  glory  of  type.  "On  which  occa- 
sion I  walked  down  to  Westminster  Hall,  and  turned  into 
it  for  half  an  hour,  because  my  eyes  were  so  dimmed  with 
joy  and  pride,  that  they  could  not  bear  the  street,  and 
were  not  fit  to  be  seen  there."  Exactly  two  years  later 
a  gentleman  called  on  him  at  his  chambers  in  Furnival's 
Inn,  and  made  the  proposal  which  begot  Tlie  Pickwick 
Papers  and  the  young  reporter's  fame.  Boz  recognised  his 
visitor  as  the  man  who  had  sold  him  the  issue  of  the  "Old 
Monthly  Magazine"  for  December  1833.  It  was  Mr.  Hall, 
junior  partner  in  the  recently-established  publishing  firm 
of  Chapman  and  Hall.  A  genuine  friendship  ensued  be- 
tween the  two  men.  There  were  misunderstandings  at  times, 
though.  Hall,  for  instance,  dropped  what  Forster  calls  an 
221 


222  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

inconsiderate  hint  with  reference  to  putting  a  clause  in  the 
agreement  respecting  Martin  Chuzzlewit  into  force.  The 
clause  was  to  the  effect  that  if  on  the  first  five  numbers  the 
profits  should  fall  below  a  certain  point  a  certain  sum 
should  be  deducted  from  tlie  author's  payments ;  and  the 
early  sales  of  Martin  Chuzzlewit  were  disappointing. 
Dickens  was  indignant — though  he  ought  to  have  known  his 
man  a  little  better — and  he  proposed  to  break  with  the 
firm,  and  then  to  give  Hall  "a  piece  of  his  mind."  On 
Forster's  advice  he  did  not  carry  out  that  proposal  at  the 
time,  but  presently  disappointment  Avith  the  Carol  receipts 
stirred  him,  and  he  and  Chapman  and  Hall  parted  com- 
pany. The  breach  was  not  for  long,  however,  and  he  re- 
turned to  them  again  for  good.  In  1811  there  had  been 
another  misunderstanding  in  connection  with  which  Dickens 
had  considered  Hall  to  be  "morally  and  physically  feeble, 
though  perfectly  well  intentioned."  "Well  intentioned" 
summed  Hall  up  admirably,  and  Dickens  could  always  make 
allowances  for  a  well-intentioned  man,  and  despite  their 
differences  he  liked  him  and  had  much  pleasant  intercourse 
with  him.  Hall  died  in  184*7,  and  Dickens  sincerely  re- 
gretted the  loss  of  "poor  Hall,"  whose  funeral  he  attended 
with  Forster. 

Of  Edward  Chapman,  the  senior  partner,  Dickens  seems 
to  have  had  a  higher  opinion.  When  Hall  Avas  "morally 
and  physically  feeble,"  Chapman  was  "very  manly  and 
sensible."  He  came  under  the  clouds  as  Hall's  partner,  of 
course,  but  there  was  a  mutual  respect  and  liking  that  was 
not  really  affected  by  the  misunderstandings,  and  they  re- 
mained good  friends  to  the  end.  Frederic  Chapman,  who 
joined  the  firm  in  184<1,  was  a  particularly  hearty,  good- 
natured  man,  and  he  and  Dickens  were  always  on  the  best 
of  terms. 

Macrone  was  Dickens's  first  publisher.  In  1835  Ains- 
worth  introduced  him  to  this  gentleman,  who,  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  published  Sketches  by  Boz  in  book  form.  We 
need  not  concern  ourselves  with  him  to  any  extent.  Forster 
has  told  how,  when  Dickens  found  that  unwittingly  he  had 
let  himself  in  for  an  impossible  amount  of  work  through 
ill-considered  agreements  with  publishers,  Macrone  was  in- 
accessible to  all  arguments,  and  had  to  be  bought  out.     He 


A  GROUP  OF  PUBLISHERS  223 

was  an  adventurer,  as  his  solicitor  admitted  in  a  letter  to 
Forster,  though  we  must  be  just  enough  to  remember  that 
he  had  made  a  big  speculation  with  the  Sketches;  and  so 
ought  not  to  be  criticised  too  severely  for  desiring  to  benefit 
to  the  full  from  the  unlooked-for  success  of  Pickwick.  Mr. 
Percy  Fitzgerald  says  that  Macrone  was  a  fellow-resident 
of  Dickens's  at  Furnival's  Inn,  and  so  must  have  been  in- 
timate with  him.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  because 
two  men  are  next-door  neighbours  they  are  intimate  with 
one  another,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Dickens  and  Macrone 
never  met  until  1835,  and  though  they  naturally  came  to 
know  each  other  pretty  well,  I  can  find  no  justification  for 
talking  about  intimacy. 

At  the  close  of  1836  Richard  Bentley  published  The 
Village  Coquettes  (one's  head  reels  at  the  contemplation  of 
the  quantity  of  work  young  Boz  undertook  at  this  time). 
The  sixth  number  of  Pickwick  had  not  yet  appeared,  when, 
on  August  22,  1836,  Dickens  signed  an  agreement  with 
Bentley  to  undertake  the  editing  of  a  montlily  magazine 
to  be  started  the  following  January,  to  which  he  was  to 
supply  a  serial  story.  Soon  afterwards  he  had  agreed  with 
the  same  publisher  to  write  two  other  tales.  With  Pickwick 
on  hand,  the  task  proved  too  much,  and  a  compromise  was 
arrived  at  amicably.  Later  a  similar  difficulty  arose,  and 
six  months  of  wrangling  followed.  A  further  agreement  was 
reached,  but  still  difficulties  continued,  until  at  last  a  final 
settlement  was  reached,  and  Dickens  linked  himself  with 
Chapman  and  Hall.  Bentley  seems  to  have  been  honest 
and  fair  in  his  intentions,  and  Forster  has  not  dealt  too 
charitably  with  him.  As  to  Dickens's  personal  relations 
nothing  can  be  said,  for  nothing  seems  to  be  known,  but  it 
is  clearly  evident  that  there  was  no  friendship. 

With  Bradbury  and  with  Evans  relations  were  much  more 
intimate.  He  went  to  them  when  he  squabbled  with  Chap- 
man and  Hall  in  1844,  and  remained  with  them  until  1859. 
Then  came  a  dispute  which  apparently  arose  out  of  their 
refusal  to  publish  in  "Punch"  that  unhappy  manifesto  re- 
specting his  domestic  troubles.  A  law  case  ensued  respect- 
ing Household  Words,  and  the  court  ordered  the  property 
to  be  sold.  Dickens  bought  it  and  killed  it,  and  started  All 
the  Year  Round.     Bradbury  and  Evans  promptly  started 


224  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"Once  a  Week,"  and  the  breach  was  complete.  But  in  the 
years  between  1844  and  1858  there  was  considerable  friend- 
liness with  both  Bradbury  and  Evans.  They  were  familiar 
guests  at  Devonshire  House,  and  with  Evans,  at  any  rate, 
there  could  not  have  been  an  absolute  rupture  of  the  friend- 
ship. For  the  novelist's  eldest  son  had  fallen  in  love  with 
the  publisher's  daughter,  and  in  November  1861  Charles 
Dickens  the  Younger  was  married  to  Miss  Evans. 

There  is  one  other  publisher  who  finds  a  place  here  by 
virtue  wholly  of  his  personal  friendship  with  Dickens. 
Thomas  Longman  never  published  anything  of  Dickens's, 
but  he  was  more  intimate  with  the  author  than  any  one  who 
did,  save  only  James  T.  Fields.  He  was  a  friend  from  the 
earliest  Broadstairs'  days,  and,  says  Forster,  remained  a 
special  favourite  always.  It  was  to  Longman,  it  will  be 
remembered,  to  whom  Dickens  recommended  young  Marcus 
Stone  shortly  after  Frank  Stone's  death. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

AMERICAN  FRIENDS WASHINGTON  IRVING 

The  ovations  which  Dickens  received  in  Scotland  in  1841 
were  but  a  slight  foretaste  of  what  he  was  to  receive  in 
America  in  the  following  year.  He  went  to  a  land  where 
he  was  as  loved  as  he  was  in  his  own  land.  In  America  his 
genius,  his  humanising  influence,  had  been  recognised  as 
quickly  as  here,  and  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop  had  completed 
the  conquest.  It  was  a  letter  from  Washington  Irving  about 
that  book  that  finally  determined  him  to  cross  the  Atlantic. 
The  reception  that  was  accorded  him  is  historic.  Never 
before  had  any  visitor  been  so  welcomed.  Everywhere  Boz 
was  the  idol,  and  his  progress  was  one  steady  triumph. 
Owing  to  his  plain  speaking  on  the  international  copy- 
right question  he  gave  offence  in  some  quarters,  and  when 
he  returned  home  and  wrote  American  Notes  and  Martin 
Chuzdewif  there  was  a  general  revulsion  of  feeling.  The 
Americans  became  almost  as  noisy  in  their  denunciations 
of  Boz  as  they  had  previously  been  in  their  demonstrations 
of  affection.  But  it  was  a  passing  anger.  Our  cousins 
went  on  reading  his  books,  and  gradually  he  reconquered 
them.  After  an  interval  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  he 
revisited  the  States  and  was  given  a  reception  which  sur- 
passed the  former  one  in  enthusiasm  and  affection.  Never 
since  has  the  sky  been  clouded.  To-day  the  Americans  are 
more  enthusiastic  Dickens  lovers  than  we  are  ourselves. 

With  his  travels  and  doings  in  America  we  are  not  con- 
cerned now.  Our  concern  is  with  some  of  the  friendships 
that  he  formed  in  that  country.  He  went  among  a  nation 
of  friends,  of  course,  but  there  were  choice  spirits  with  whom 
he  became  very  intimate.  The  English  friends  whom  he 
loved  as  he  loved  Washington  Irving,  for  instance,  were 
very  few  indeed,  Longfellow  he  grappled  to  his  heart  with 
225 


226  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

hoops  of  steel;  so  did  he  Prof.  Fclton.  Later  James  T. 
Fields  was  established  in  his  affection.  Others  with  whom 
he  became  on  very  friendly  terms  were  James  Russell  Lowell, 
Charles  Eliot  Norton,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Childs,  Emer- 
son, Dana,  Bancroft,  etc. 

Best  loved  of  them  all  was  "Geoffrey  Crayon."  Mr.  W. 
Glyde  Wilkins  in  "Dickens  and  America"  accepts  the  sug- 
gestion that  the  chief  influence  that  decided  Dickens  to  pay 
his  first  visit  to  the  States  was  his  desire  to  see  Cairo.  I 
think  a  much  stronger  influence  than  that  was  his  desire 
to  meet  in  the  flesh  the  author  of  "The  Sketch  Book." 
They  had  already  corresponded.  In  1841  Irving  had 
written  to  Dickens  "expressing  my  heartfelt  delight  with 
his  writings,  and  my  yearnings  towards  himself"  and  "that 
glorious  fellow"  had,  as  Forster  says,  answered  him  with 
more  than  his  own  warmth: 

"There  is  no  man  in  the  world  who  could  have  given 
me  the  heartfelt  pleasure  you  have  by  your  kind  note. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  living  writer,  and  there  are  very  few 
among  the  dead,  whose  approbation  I  should  feel  so 
proud  to  earn.  And  with  everything  you  have  written 
upon  my  shelves,  and  in  my  thoughts,  and  in  my  heart 
of  hearts,  I  may  honestly  and  truly  say  so.  If  you 
could  know  how  earnestly  I  write  this,  you  would  be 
glad  to  read  it — as  I  hope  you  will  be,  faintly  guessing 
at  the  warmth  of  the  hand  I  autographically  hold  out 
to  you  over  the  broad  Atlantic." 

In  October  1841  Irving  wrote  to  his  niece,  Mrs.  Storrow: 
"What  do  you  think?  Dickens  is  actually  coming  to 
America.  .  .  ."  They  first  met  in  New  York,  and  each 
was  just  what  the  other  expected  to  find  him — Boz  breezy 
and  generous-hearted,  Crayon  unaffected,  homely,  and  lov- 
able. And  so  the  friendship,  which  had  so  far  only  existed 
"autographically,"  was  cemented. 

Before  that  first  meeting,  Irving's  had  been  one  of  the 
signatures  appended  to  an  address  of  welcome  from  the 
citizens  of  New  York.  The  dinner,  an  invitation  to  which 
had  been  included  in  that  address,  took  place  on  the  follow- 
ing day,  and  Irving  was  in  the  chair.     About  800  guests 


\Vasiiin(;t(in   Irving 
From  an  Engraving   by  Joseph  Broun 


WASHINGTON  IRVING  227 

were  present,  and  in  the  course  of  his  speech  Dickens  made 
a  wholly  delightful  reference  to  his  friend: 

"Washington  Irving!  Why,  gentlemen,  I  don't  go 
upstairs  to  bed  two  nights  out  of  the  seven  .  .  .  with- 
out taking  Washington  Irving  under  my  arm;  and 
when  I  don't  take  him,  I  take  his  own  brother,  Oliver 
Goldsmith.  .  .  .  Washington  Irving — Diedrich  Knick- 
erbocker— Geoffrey  Crayon — why,  where  can  you  go 
that  they  have  not  been  there  before?  Is  there  an 
English  farm — is  there  an  English  stream,  an  English 
city,  or  an  English  country-seat  where  they  have  not 
been?  Is  there  no  Bracebridge  Hall  in  existence?  Has 
it  no  ancient  shades  or  quiet  streets?" 

This  was  the  occasion  on  wliich  Irving  broke  down  in  his 
speech.  His  and  Dickens's  common  friend.  Prof.  Felton, 
has  told  the  story.  Irving,  he  says,  always  shrank  with  a 
comical  terror  from  making  an  after-dinner  speech,  and 
on  this  occasion  he  was  full  of  forebodings  that  he  would 
break  down. 

"He  had  brought  the  manuscript  of  his  speech,  and 
laid  it  under  his  plate.  'I  shall  certainly  break  down,' 
he  repeated  over  and  over  again.  At  last  the  moment 
arrived.  Mr.  Irving  rose,  and  was  received  with  deaf- 
ening and  long-continued  applause,  which  by  no  means 
lessened  his  apprehension.  He  began  in  his  pleasant 
voice;  got  through  two  or  three  sentences  pretty 
easily,  but  in  the  next  hesitated;  and,  after  one  or  two 
attempts  to  go  on,  gave  it  up,  with  a  graceful  allusion 
to  the  tournament  and  the  troop  of  knights  all  armed 
and  eager  for  the  fray;  and  ended  ^vith  the  toast, 
'Charles  Dickens,  the  Guest  of  the  nation.'  'There!' 
said  he,  as  he  resumed  his  seat  under  a  repetition  of 
the  applause  which  had  saluted  his  rising — 'there!  I 
told  you  I  should  break  down,  and  I've  done  it.'  " 

Following  the  New  York  dinner,  Dickens  and  Irving 
journeyed  to  Washington  together,  and  there  spent  a  few 
days.  Then  they  said  what  both  expected  to  be  the  last 
"good-bye"  before  Irving  sailed  for  Spain,  where  he  was 


228  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

to  take  up  the  duties  of  American  minister.  "Irving  .  .  . 
wept  heartily  at  parting,"  wrote  Dickens  to  Forster,  add- 
ing, "He  is  a  fine  fellow,  when  yon  know  liim;  and  you 
would  relish  him,  my  dear  friend,  of  all  things.  We  have 
laughed  together  at  some  absurdities  we  have  encountered 
in  company,  quite  in  my  vociferous  Devonshire  Terrace 
style."     A  day  or  two  later  he  wrote  to  Irving  himself: 

"We  passed  through — literally  passed  through — tliis 
place  again  to-day.  I  did  not  come  to  see  3'^ou,  for 
I  really  have  not  the  heart  to  say  'good-bye'  again,  and 
felt  more  than  I  can  tell  you  when  we  shook  hands 
last  Wednesday. 

"You  will  not  be  at  Baltimore,  I  fear.?  I  thought 
at  the  time  that  you  only  said  you  might  be  there, 
to  make  our  parting  the  gayer.  Wlierever  you  go, 
God  bless  you !  Wliat  pleasure  I  have  had  in  seeing 
and  talking  A\dth  you,  I  will  not  attempt  to  say.  I 
shall  never  forget  it  as  long  as  I  live.  Wliat  would  I 
give  if  we  could  have  but  a  quiet  week  together !  Spain 
is  a  lazy  place,  and  its  climate  an  indolent  one.  But 
if  you  ever  have  leisure  under  its  sunny  skies  to  think 
of  a  man  who  loves  you,  and  holds  communion  with 
your  spirit  oftcner,  perhaps,  than  any  other  person 
alive — leisure  from  listlessness,  I  mean — and  will  write 
to  me  m  London,  you  will  give  me  an  inexpressible 
amount  of  pleasure." 

They  did  meet  again,  in  Baltimore,  for  Irving  could  not 
resist  the  opportunity  of  saying  one  more  farewell.  "Wash- 
ington Irving  has  come  in  for  another  leave-taking,  and 
dines  with  me  to-day,"  Dickens  wrote  to  Forster.  It  was 
indeed  their  last  leave-taking.  They  never  met  in  London, 
and  when  Dickens  revisited  the  States,  his  friend  had  been 
dead  nearly  ten  years.  That  farewell  dinner  at  Baltimore 
on  March  23,  1842,  was  always  a  happy  memory  with 
Dickens.  During  his  second  American  tour  he  thus  replied 
to  a  letter  from  Mr.  Charles  Lanman: 

"Your  reference  to  my  dear  friend  Washington 
Irving  renews  the  vivid  impressions  reawakened  in  my 


WASHINGTON  IRVING  229 

mind  at  Baltimore  but  the  other  day.  I  saw  his  fine 
face  for  the  last  time  in  that  city.  He  came  there 
from  New  York  to  pass  a  day  or  two  with  me  before 
I  went  westward;  and  they  were  made  among  the  most 
memorable  of  my  life  by  his  delightful  fancy  and  genial 
humour.  Some  unknown  admirer  of  his  books  and  mine 
sent  to  the  hotel  a  most  enormous  mint  julep,  wreathed 
with  flowers.  We  sat,  one  on  either  side  of  it,  with 
great  solemnity  (it  filled  a  respectably-sized  round 
table),  but  the  solemnity  was  of  very  short  duration. 
It  was  quite  an  enchanted  julep,  and  carried  us  among 
innumerable  people  and  places  that  we  both  knew.  The 
julep  held  out  far  into  the  night,  and  my  memory  never 
saw  him  afterwards  otherwise  than  as  bending  over  it, 
with  his  straw,  with  an  attempted  air  of  gravity  (after 
some  anecdote  involving  some  wonderfully  droll  and 
delicate  observation  of  character),  and  then,  as  his  eye 
caught  mine,  melting  into  that  captivating  laugh  of 
his,  which  was  the  brightest  and  best  I  have  ever 
heard." 

There  can  be  no  irreverence  in  imagining  these  two  friends, 
so  close  bound  in  life,  recalling  in  the  land  of  Shadows,  that 
last  happy  night  they  spent  together  on  earth,  when  the 
happiness  was  tinged  with  the  sadness  of  farewell. 


CHAPTER  XL 

AMERICAN   FRIENDS    {conUnUCcJ) LONGFELLO"W 

Next  to  Irving,  Dickens's  best-loved  American  friend  was 
Longfellow.  The  earliest  reference  to  the  poet  in  Forster's 
book  is  contained  in  a  letter  written  b}'^  Dickens  soon  after 
his  arrival  in  the  States :  "The  professors  at  the  Cambridge 
Universit}',  Longfellow,  Felton,  Jared  Sparks,  are  noble 
fellows."  A  little  later  he  confirmed  this  first  impression: 
"Longfellow  ...  is  a  frank  accomiDlished  man,  as  well  as 
a  fine  writer."  The  poet  was  a  man  of  a  type  likely  to 
appeal  to  Boz — frank,  genial,  capable  of  joviality,  and  ever 
ready  to  open  his  heart  to  those  whom  he  counted  his 
friends. 

They  met  several  times  during  Dickens's  first  American 
tour,  and  when  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  Longfellow 
came  to  England,  Dickens  was  eager  to  welcome  him  and 
repay  some  of  the  kindness  that  he  had  received  across  the 
water.  Needless  to  say,  the  door  of  Devonsliire  Terrace 
was  flung  Ande  open,  and  there  were  sounds  of  revelry  by 
night  during  the  poet's  stay  in  London.  "You  and  I,"  he 
wrote  to  Forster  some  years  later,  "were  the  j  oiliest  of  all 
the  youths  at  Dickens's  table  in  the  autumn  of  184!2." 
Forster  records  how,  twenty-six  years  later,  the  author  of 
"Hiawatha"  reminded  him  of  two  experiences  of  many  that 
they  enjoyed  during  the  visit.  "One  of  these  was  a  day  at 
Rochester,  when,  met  by  one  of  those  prohibitions  which 
are  the  wonder  of  visitors  and  the  shame  of  Englishmen, 
we  overlcapt  gates  and  barriers,  and,  setting  at  defiance 
repeated  threats  of  all  the  terrors  of  law  coarsely  expressed 
to  us  by  the  custodian  of  the  place,  explored  the  castle 
ruins.  The  other  was  a  night  among  those  portions  of  the 
population  who  outrage  the  law  and  defy  its  terrors  all  the 
days  of  their  lives,  the  tramps  and  thieves  of  London ;  when, 
230 


LONGFELLOW  231 

under  guidance  and  protection  of  the  most  trusted  officers 
of  the  metropolitan  prisons  .  .  .  we  went  over  the  worst 
haunts  of  the  most  dangerous  classes." 

Longfellow  returned  home  by  the  "Great  Western," 
Dickens  travelling  with  him  to  Bristol,  whence  he  sailed. 
They  next  met  in  America  in  1867,  and  a  warm  welcome 
awaited  the  novelist  at  Sunnyside.  "Dickens  was  here  last 
night,"  wrote  the  poet  to  Forster;  "it  is  a  great  pleasure 
to  see  Dickens  again  after  so  many  years,  with  the  same 
sweetness  and  flavour  as  of  old."  Longfellow  was  one  of 
the  guests  at  the  dinner  which  followed  the  great  Walking 
Match  between  George  Dolby  ("the  Man  of  Ross")  and 
James  R.  Osgood  ("the  Boston  Bantam").  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  in  the  humorous  "Articles  of  Agreement" 
for  this  match,  drawn  up  by  Dickens  ("the  Gad's  Hill 
Gasper")  the  last  two  names  of  those  who  are  to  honour 
the  dinner  by  their  presence  are  "an  obscure  poet  named 
Longfellow  (if  discoverable)  and  Miss  Longfellow."  The 
two  friends  met  very  often — daily,  indeed,  whenever  Dickens 
was  in  Boston — and  one  of  the  happiest  evenings  of  the 
tour  was  spent  at  Longfellow's  house,  when  the  following 
immortals  dined  together:  Longfellow,  Dickens,  Agassiz, 
Lowell,  Holmes,  and  Bayard  Taylor.  It  is  scarcely  sur- 
prising to  find  Dolby  recording  that  the  dinner  was  a  most 
enjoyable  one,  and  that  the  fun  flew  fast  and  furious! 

In  June  1868  Longfellow  paid  his  last  visit  to  England 
accompanied  by  his  daughters,  and  Dickens  laid  himself  out 
to  give  his  friend  a  right  royal  time:  "At  the  arrival  of 
friends  whom  he  loved  and  honoured  as  he  did  these,  from 
the  great  country  to  which  he  owed  so  much,"  says  Forster, 
"infinite  were  the  rejoicings  at  Gadshill."  The  weather  was 
glorious,  and  though  the  poet's  stay  was  short,  the  small 
house-party  had,  as  Dickens  wrote  to  Fields,  "a  really  good 
time." 

"I  showed  them  all  the  neighbouring  country  that 
could  be  shown  in  so  short  a  time,  and  they  finished 
off  with  a  tour  of  inspection  of  the  kitchens,  pantry, 
wine-cellar,  pickles,  sauces,  servants'  sitting-room,  gen- 
eral household  stores,  and  even  the  Cellar  Book  of  this 
illustrious  establishment.  ...  I   turned   out   a   couple 


232  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

of  postilions  in  the  old  red  jacket  of  the  old  red  royal 
Dover  road,  for  our  ride;  and  it  was  like  a  hoUday  ride 
in  England  fifty  years  ago." 

Just  two  years  later,  Longfellow  was  writing  to  Forster: 
"The  terrible  news  from  England  fills  us  all  with  inex- 
pressible sadness.  Dickens  was  so  full  of  life  that  it  did 
not  seem  possible  he  could  die,  and  yet  he  has  gone  from 
us,  and  we  are  sorrowing  for  him.  ...  I  never  knew  an 
author's  death  cause  such  general  mourning.  It  is  no  ex- 
aggeration to  say  that  tliis  whole  country  is  stricken  with 
grief." 


CHAPTER  XLI 

AMEEICAN  FRIENDS    (contillUed) PROFESSOR  FELTON 

Among  Americans,  next  to  Irving  and  Longfellow  in 
Dickens's  regard  came  Cornelius  Conway  Felton,  Professor 
of  Greek  at  Harvard,  to  whom  some  of  his  best  and  most 
Dickensian  letters  were  written.  "A  most  delightful  fellow" 
was  Dickens's  description  of  him,  and  we  are  told  by  the 
Editors  of  the  novelist's  Letters  that  he  was  one  of  the  most 
heartily  loved  friends.  They  first  met  at  Boston  in  1842, 
they  became  firm  friends  at  once,  and  when  Dickens  set 
out  on  his  tour  Felton  accompanied  him  as  far  as  New 
York.  A  little  later  we  find  Dickens  writing  to  this  "very 
dear  friend": 

"You  carried  away  with  you  more  than  half  the 
delight  and  pleasure  of  my  New  World ;  and  I  heartily 
wish  you  could  bring  it  back  again.  .  .  .  We  shall  be 
in  Buflfalo,  please  Heaven,  on  the  30th  of  April.  If  I 
don't  find  a  letter  from  you  in  the  care  of  the  post- 
master at  that  place,  I'll  never  write  to  you  from 
England.  But  if  I  do  find  one,  my  right  hand  shall 
forget  its  cunning,  before  I  forget  to  be  your  truthful 
and  constant  correspondent;  not,  dear  Felton,  because 
I  promised  it,  nor  because  I  have  a  natural  tendency 
to  correspond  (which  is  far  from  being  the  case),  nor 
because  I  am  truly  grateful  to  you  for,  and  have  been 
made   truly   proud   by,   that   affectionate   and   elegant 

tribute  which  sent  me,   but   because   you   are   a 

man  after  my  own  heart,  and  I  love  3'^ou  well.  And 
for  the  love  I  bear  you,  and  the  pleasure  with  which  I 
shall  always  think  of  you,  and  the  glow  I  shall  feel 
when  I  see  your  handwriting  in  my  own  home,  I  hereby 
enter  into  a  solemn  league  and  covenant  to  write  as 
233 


234  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

many   letters   to   you   as   you  write   to  me,   at  least. 
Amen." 

And  the  covenant  was  kept.  In  the  whole  of  Dickens's 
published  leters  there  are  none  so  charming,  so  redolent  of 
the  spirit  of  the  man  himself  as  those  written  to  Prof. 
Felton.  Several  of  them  contain  diverting  references  to 
oysters.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  joke  which  the  pair  kept 
to  themselves,  more's  the  pit3\  It  evidently  arose  out  of 
some  jo\'ialities  during  their  first  stay  together  in  New 
York.    For  Felton  was  a  jovial  soul. 

Their  correspondence  was  regular  after  Dickens's  return 
to  England.  He  was  untiring  in  pressing  Felton  to  cross 
the  Atlantic,  and  aU  his  letters  are  in  the  same  hearty 
strain.  "Heavens  !  if  j^ou  were  but  here  at  this  minute !  .  .  . 
With  what  a  -shout  I  would  clap  you  down  into  the  easiest 
chair,  my  genial  Felton,  if  j^ou  could  but  appear,  and  order 
you  a  pair  of  slippers  instantly !"  Or,  "On  the  4th  of  April 
I  am  going  to  preside  at  a  public  dinner  for  the  benefit 
of  the  printers ;  and  if  you  were  a  guest  at  that  table, 
wouldn't  I  smite  you  on  the  shoulder,  harder  than  ever  I 
rapped  the  well-beloved  back  of  Washington  Irving  at  the 
City  Hotel  in  New  York."  Or  again :  "Yesterday  morning. 
New  Year's  Day  .  .  .  the  postman  came  to  the  door  with 
a  knock,  for  which  I  denounced  him  from  my  heart.  Seeing 
your  hand  upon  the  cover  of  a  letter  which  he  brought,  I 
immediately  blessed  him,  presented  him  with  a  glass  of 
whiskey,  inquired  after  his  family  (they  are  all  well)  and 
opened  the  dispatch  with  a  moist  and  oystery  twinkle  in  my 
eye.  And  on  the  very  da}^  from  which  the  new  year  dates, 
I  read  3'our  New  Year  congratulations  as  punctually  as  if 
you  lived  in  the  same  house !  Why  don't  you !  .  .  .  Count- 
less happy  years  to  j^ou  and  yours,  my  dear  Felton,  and 
some  instalment  of  tliem,  however  slight,  in  England,  in  the 
loving  company  of  The  Proscribed  One.  Oh,  breathe  not 
his  name !" 

"A  few  days  of  unalloyed  enjoyment  were  given  to  the 
visit  of  his  excellent  American  friend  Felton."  It  is  dis- 
appomting  that  this  should  be  Forster's  only  reference  to 
Felton's  long  anticipated  visit  to  England.  Nor  can  I  find 
any  reference  elsewhere.     But  it  is  not  difficult  to  picture 


PROFESSOR  FELTON  235 

the  meeting  of  the  friends,  the  hearty  smite  upon  the 
shoulder,  the  "gleaming  spectacles";  or  to  hear  in  imagina- 
tion their  hearty  laughter  as  they  recalled  that  joke  about 
the  oysters  (we  may  be  sure  they  had  an  oyster  feast  to- 
gether). We  can  picture  Dickens's  "unalloyed  enjoyment" 
as  he  welcomed  liis  guest,  and  showed  him  the  sights  of 
London ;  took  him  to  the  George  and  Vulture,  or  to  the 
Belle  Sauvage,  or  perhaps  to  the  Spaniards  and  Jack 
Straw's.  It  was  the  last  time  they  met,  though  their  cor- 
respondences continued  uninterruptedly  until  Felton's  death 
in  1862. 


CHAPTER  XLII 

AMERICAN    FEIENDS    {cOtltinued) HOLMES,    LOWELL,    AND 

OTHERS 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  was  only  thirty-three  years  old 
when  Dickens  first  met  him  in  1842,  and  he  had  to  live 
another  twenty  years  before  achieving  fame  as  the  Autocrat. 
To  the  world  at  large  he  was  quite  unknown,  but  in  Boston, 
where,  in  the  previous  year,  he  had  started  in  general  prac- 
tice as  a  doctor,  he  moved  in  the  best  cultured  circles,  and 
was  sufficiently  prominent  in  the  life  of  the  city  to  be 
selected  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  dinner  which  was 
given  in  Boz's  honour.  One  of  the  events  of  that  evening 
was  the  singing  of  a  song  which  Holmes  had  written  specially 
for  the  occasion.  He  sang  it  himself,  too,  to  the  tune  of 
"Gramachrce." 

During  this  first  ^dsit  no  friendsliip  was  formed,  which 
is  not  surprising,  for  Holmes  being  an  unknown  man  it  was 
hardly  likely  he  would  be  brought  into  personal  touch  with 
Dickens.  But  when  Dickens  returned  to  America  twenty- 
five  years  later  Holmes  was  famous,  and  well-beloved  by 
the  JEnglish-speaking  peoples,  and  was  one  of  America's 
chief  citizens  whom  the  novelist  desired  to  know.  He  was 
one  of  the  first  to  bid  the  traveller  welcome,  and  whenever 
Dickens  was  in  Boston,  Dolby  tells  us,  the  Autocrat's 
society  was  a  great  pleasure  to  him.  It  is  a  pity  they  had 
not  come  to  know  each  other  long  before,  for  they  must 
have  been  kindred  souls. 

James  Russell  Lowell  was  still  younger  than  Holmes,  but 
in  1842  he  already  had  to  his  credit  a  volume  of  poems 
which  had  found  considerable  favour.  He  was  one  of  the 
committee  which  waited  upon  Dickens  to  invite  him  to  the 
Boston  dinner,  but  they  did  not  become  personally  intimate 
until  the  novelist's  second  visit.  Then  they  saw  a  great  deal 
236 


HOLMES,  LOWELL,  AND  OTHERS    237 

of  each  other,  and  formed  a  strong  mutual  regard.  In 
1869  Dickens  welcomed  Lowell's  daughter  to  Gadshill  with 
delight,  and  made  her  stay  there  with  James  T.  Fields  and 
his  wife  memorable. 

There  were  other  American  friends  whom  Dickens  liked 
well,  with  whom  he  was  very  friendly,  who  showed  him  many 
kindnesses,  but  with  whom  there  was  nothing  of  that  in- 
timacy that  existed  with  Irving,  Longfellow,  and  Felton. 
Emerson  was  one  of  these,  as  might  be  supposed,  and 
Dickens  was  glad  to  welcome  him  when  he  came  to  England. 
George  William  Childs  was  another.  There  were  also 
George  Bancroft  ("a  famous  man,  a  straightforward, 
manly,  earnest  heart")  ;  Washington  Allston  ("a  fine  speci- 
men of  a  glorious  old  genius")  ;  William  Henry  Channing 
("just  the  man  he  ought  to  be")  ;  Jolm  Lathrop  Motley 
(who  the  late  Frederick  Locker-Lampson  tells  us  was  very 
fond  of  Dickens)  ;  Richard  Henry  Dana  ("a  very  nice 
fellow")  ;  Henry  Clay  ("a  most  charming  fellow")  ;  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck  ("a  merry  little  man") ;  David  Golden  ("I 
am  deeply  in  love  with  his  wife.  Indeed,  we  have  received 
the  greatest  and  most  earnest  and  zealous  kindness  from  the 
whole  family,  and  quite  love  them  all")  ;  William  Cullen 
Bryant  ("sad  and  very  reserved")  ;  W.  H.  Prescott  (for 
whose  work  Dickens  had  a  great  admiration:  "I  wrote  to 
Prescott  about  his  book,  with  which  I  was  perfectly  charmed. 
I  think  his  descriptions  masterly,  his  style  brilhant,  his 
purpose  manly  and  gallant  always")  ;  Bayard  Taylor 
(whose  visits  to  Gadshill  in  1869  were  a  special  enjoyment 
to  the  novelist)  ;  and  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 

There  remain  James  T.  Fields  and  his  wife,  and  his  part- 
ner, James  R.  Osgood,  for  whom  a  separate  chapter  is 
reserved. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

AMEEICAN  FRIENDS   (cOTltinUcd) MR.  AND  MRS.   JAMES  T. 

FIELDS 

There  never  was  a  period  in  all  his  life  when  Dickens  so 
needed  friendship  as  during  that  tragic  American  tour  of 
1867-8,  and  he  was  indeed  happy  in  the  friendship  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  James  T.  Fields.  They  looked  after  him  as  though 
he  were  their  only  son,  and  again  and  again  he  speaks  in 
his  letters  home  of  their  unceasing  kindness. 

Dickens  and  Fields  became  acquainted  in  the  way  of 
business,  for  Fields  was  a  partner  in  the  famous  publishing 
house  of  Ticknor  and  Fields.  From  liis  earliest  days,  how- 
ever. Fields  had  been  one  of  the  novelist's  most  enthusiastic 
admirers,  and  he  has  recorded  sometliing  of  the  enthusiasm 
he  felt  in  his  book,  "Yesterdays  with  Authors." 

They  first  met  in  London  in  1859,  though  they  had  had 
business  dealings  some  time  prior  to  that  date.  Their  ac- 
quaintance quickly  ripened  into  a  strong  friendship  as  a 
result  of  personal  intercourse.  Fields  spent  a  happy  day 
at  Gadshill,  and  within  a  month  we  find  Dickens  concluding 
a  letter  thus:  "Believe  me  always  (and  here  I  for  ever 
renounce  'Mr.'  as  having  anything  whatever  to  do  with  our 
communications,  and  as  being  a  mere  preposterous  inter- 
loper), Faithfully  yours,  Charles  Dickens."  Fields  was 
possessed  by  the  desire  that  Dickens  should  read  in  America, 
and  during  this  visit  he  urged  it  upon  the  noveUst,  but  the 
Civil  War  came  in  1860,  and  the  idea  had  to  be  abandoned 
for  years.  But  Fields  never  allowed  the  matter  to  drop, 
and  his  ambition  was  realised  in  1867.  And  when  at  last 
Dickens  crossed  the  Atlantic,  Fields  and  his  wife  laid  them- 
selves out  to  make  his  stay  in  the  land  of  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  as  happy  and  as  comfortable  as  it  could  be  made. 
Over  and  over  again  Dolby  tells  us  how  devoted  the  pair 


MR.  AND  MRS.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS    239 

were  to  the  novelist,  and  Dickens  himself  bears  frequent 
testimony.  In  almost  every  one  of  his  letters  home,  he  told 
of  their  devotion  to  him:  "Mrs.  Fields  is  more  dehghtful 
than  ever,  and  Fields  more  hospitable.  My  room  is  always 
radiant  with  brilliant  flowers  of  their  sending."  Again: 
"They  are  the  most  devoted  of  friends,  and  never  in  the 
way,  and  never  out  of  it." 

Of  course.  Fields  entered  into  the  fun  of  the  great  Walk- 
ing Match.  In  the  articles  drawn  up  by  the  "Gad's  Hill 
Gasper,"  he  is  described  as  "James  T.  Fields,  known  in 
sporting  circles  as  Massachusetts  Jemmy,"  and  he  is  named 
as  one  of  the  "umpires,  starters,  and  declarers  of  victory." 
Dolby  was  beaten  because  he  allowed  Osgood  to  get  too  far 
away  from  him,  supposing  that  he  had  poor  staying  power. 
"My  supposition,"  he  sa^'s,  "probably  would  have  been  con- 
firmed had  not  Mrs.  Fields  arrived  on  the  scene  in  her  car- 
riage, and  turning  round,  accompanied  Osgood  the  rest  of 
the  walk,  plying  him  the  whole  time  with  bread  soaked  in 
hrandy!  We  all,  with  the  exception  of  Osgood,  of  course, 
felt  that  she  showed  great  favouritism  in  this  respect,  but 
she  frankly  admitted  that  she  would  have  done  the  same  by 
me  if  she  had  met  me  first.  .  .   ." 

In  a  letter  to  his  daughter,  Dickens  described  the  dinner 
which  followed: 

"As  she  (Mrs.  Fields)  had  done  so  much  for  me  in 
the  way  of  flowers,  I  thought  I  would  show  her  a  sight 
in  that  line  at  the  dinner.  You  never  saw  anything 
like  it.  Two  immense  crowns ;  the  base  of  the  choicest 
exotics ;  and  the  loops  oval  masses  of  violets.  In  the 
centre  of  the  table  an  immense  basket,  overflowing  with 
bell-mouthed  lilies;  all  round  the  table  a  bright  green 
border  of  wreathed  creeper,  with  clustering  roses  at 
intervals;  a  rose  for  every  button-hole,  and  a  bouquet 
for  every  lady." 

Says  Fields,  "David  Copperfield,  Hyperion,  Hosea  Biglow, 
the  Autocrat,  and  the  Bad  Boy  were  present,  and  there  was 
no  need  for  set  speeches.  The  ladies  present,  being  all 
daughters  of  America,  smiled  upon  the  champion,  and  we 
had  a  great  good  time."     Let  us  recall  an  incident  of  the 


240  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

dinner,  and  judge  whether  he  is  right  in  saying  that  the 
company  had  a  great  good  time.  Dickens  had  described 
the  plan  he  adopted  when  preparing  a  speech,  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  give  a  practical  illustration.  They  were  to  have 
a  mimic  election,  and  the  candidates  were  to  be  Dolby  and 
Biglow.  Dickens  Mas  to  voice  the  claims  of  the  former,  and 
Fields  those  of  the  latter,     Dolby  shall  tell  the  rest: 

"In  his  endeavour  to  establish  my  claims  as  a  fit  and 
proper  person  to  represent  the  borough,  Mr.  Dickens 
instanced  the  fact  that  I  had  no  hair  on  the  top  of 
my  head,  Avhereas  the  rival  candidate,  being  plentifully 
supplied  with  that  article,  could  not  be  considered  a 
desirable  person  to  represent  any  borough  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  After  he  had  finished  his  speech,  which 
was  of  the  most  ludicrous  description,  Fields  commenced 
his,  but  was  never  allowed  to  finish  it,  for  he  was  con- 
tinually interrupted  by  Mr.  Dickens  in  a  variety  of 
voices  and  cries,  such  as  'Down  with  the  hairy  aris- 
tocracy !'  'Up  with  the  chap  with  the  shiny  top !'  etc. ; 
the  whole  resulting  in  such  an  uproar  that  poor  Fields 
had  no  chance.  The  outbursts  of  laughter  were  so  loud 
and  continuous,  and  the  side-splitting  pain  so  great  in 
consequence,  that  it  was  with  sheer  exhaustion  that  we 
all  gave  up  and  retired  for  the  night." 

Such  events  as  this,  however,  were  but  glimpses  of  the 
sun  through  the  clouds,  for  throughout  the  tour  Dickens 
was  labouring  against  the  utmost  physical  distress.  AU  the 
time  Fields  and  his  wife  were  kindness  personified.  "The 
Fields  were  all  and  ever3fthing  to  him  in  his  illness,"  says 
Dolby,  "and  the  affectionate  attention  of  Mrs.  Fields,  who, 
as  usual,  had  decorated  his  rooms  with  flowers,  and  the 
genial  society  of  Fields  did  much  to  make  him  forget  his 
sufferings."  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  remembered  all  this 
with  gratitude.  The  affection  between  the  two  men  deep- 
ened, and  when  at  last  Boz  set  his  face  homewards,  Fields 
was  remembered  among  his  best-loved  friends. 

In  May  1869  Fields  and  his  wife  came  to  England,  and 
needless  to  say,  Dickens  welcomed  them  Avith  the  utmost 
heartiness.     Fields  has  told  the  story  of  that  visit  fully. 


MR.  AND  MRS.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS    241 

Dickens  showed  him  round  London  as  well  as  round  the 
beauty  spots  of  Kent,  and  at  his  visitor's  special  request, 
mounted  a  staircase  at  Furnival's  Inn,  which  he  had  not 
mounted  for  very  many  years,  in  order  to  show  him  the 
very  room  in  which  the  first  page  of  Pickwick  was  written. 
They  visited  some  of  the  slums,  and  haunts  of  crime,  and 
saw  together  the  opium  den  which  was  afterwards  literally 
described  in  Edwin  Drood.  They  went  over  the  General 
Post  Office ;  they  explored  the  Temple,  Dickens  taking  his 
friend  to  Pip's  room;  they  rambled  through  the  quaint  old 
city  of  Rochester,  through  the  Cobham  Woods  to  Cobham 
Park,  and  on  to  the  Leather  Bottle ;  and  one  glorious  day  the 
whole  house-party  drove  over  to  Canterbury  and  trod  the 
streets  that  little  David  Copperfield  so  often  trod.  On 
another  day.  Cooling  was  their  destination ;  and  yet  another 
favourite  walk  was  to  Kit's  Coty  House.  After  a  tour  on 
the  continent,  the  visitors  again  spent  some  pleasant  days 
at  Gadshill,  and  then  they  sailed  for  home,  never  again  to 
see  him  whom  they  loved  so  truly. 

With  James  R.  Osgood  and  with  Ticknor,  Fields's  part- 
ners, Dickens  was  on  the  best  of  terms,  but  neither  has  a 
claim  to  be  classed  with  Fields  among  his  intimate  friends. 
To  Osgood,  however,  he  was  particularly  indebted  for  many 
kindness  during  the  Reading  Tour,  and  he  acknowledges  tliis 
in  several  of  his  letters. 


CHAPTER  XLIV 

SICHARD   MONCKTON  MILNES 

Dickens's  return  from  America  in  June  1842  "was  the 
occasion  of  unbounded  enjoyment,"  says  Forster.  "A 
Greenwich  dinner  in  which  several  friends  (Talfourd,  Milnes, 
Procter,  MacHse,  Stanfield,  Marryat,  Barnham,  Hood,  and 
Cruikshank  among  them)  took  part,  and  other  immediate 
gatherings  followed."  With  all  but  one  of  these  friends  we 
have  already  dealt.     Let  us  speak  of  him  now. 

The  Marquis  of  Crewe  suggests  to  me  that  his  father 
was  one  of  a  group  of  "outer  acquaintances"  of  Dickens's. 
He  says:  "Both  he  and  my  mother  were  on  terms  of 
pleasant  and  intimate  acquaintanceship  with  Dickens,  and 
I  have  a  few  letters  and  notes  from  him  to  both.  But  I  do 
not  think  that  they  met  regularly  or  often,  and  I  am  pretty 
sure  that  Dickens  never  stayed  at  Fryston,  and  that  my 
father  was  never  a  guest  at  Gadshill."  It  is  true  that 
Milnes  was  not  a  member  of  the  innermost  Dickens  circle ; 
but  there  was  more  than  one  Dickens  circle.  We  might 
say  there  were  three  circles — innermost,  inner,  and  outer, 
and  then  we  might  place  Milnes  in  the  second  of  these.  At 
one  time,  when  both  were  in  their  heyday,  they  certainly 
did  meet  frequently.  Forster  couples  him  with  Marryat 
as  a  welcome  companion  in  the  very  early  days,  and  later, 
dealing  with  the  period  1848-51,  he  speaks  of  Milnes  as 
"familiar  with  Dickens  over  all  the  period  since,  and  still 
more  prominent  in  Tavistock  House  days,  when,  with  Lady 
Houghton,  he  brought  fresh  claims  to  my  friend's  admira- 
tion and  regard."  So  early  as  1840  they  were  sufficiently 
intimate  for  Dickens  to  address  his  letters  with  the  familiar 
"My  dear  Milnes." 

It  was  at  about  this  time  that  Dickens  received  the  in- 
evitable invitation  to  breakfast  (Carlyle,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, said  that  if  Christ  were  to  come  on  earth  Milnes 
242 


RICHARD  MONCKTON  MILNES      243 

would  ask  Him  to  breakfast),  and  his  reply  was:  "I  never 
went  out  to  breakfast  in  my  life,  and  am  afraid  to  try 
how  one  feels  under  the  circumstances ;  but  I  will  be  with 
you  next  Friday  at  eleven  o'clock  for  purposes  of  small 
talk — that  being  the  day  which  did  itself  the  honour  of 
presenting  me  to  the  world  twenty-eight  years  ago."  But 
at  some  subsequent  date  unrecorded  he  summoned  up  his 
courage,  for  in  1862  we  find  liim  writing:  "Many  thanks. 
But  I  have  been  out  to  breakfast  only  twice  in  my  life — 
both  times  ages  ago — once  with  Rogers,  and  once  with  you 
in  Pall  Mall.  Moreover,  I  read  Copperfield  on  Thursday 
night.  And  when  I  do  that,  I  am  in  lavender  on  a  shelf 
all  day." 

But  let  us  refer  again  to  the  first  of  these  two  letters. 
Milnes  had  evidently  hinted  at  some  humorous  notion  that 
he  had,  for  Dickens's  letter  continues: 

"I  really  would  immortalise  myself,  if  I  Were  you,  by 
presenting  that  national  anthem  of  the  Seven  Dials. 
It  is  a  capital  notion.  Perhaps  you  have  heard  that 
song  in  the  streets  about  the  Queen's  marriage,  whereof 
the  burden  is  (Her  Majesty  being  supposed  to  sing  it)  : 

"  'So  let  'em  say  whate'er  they  mayj 
Or  do  whate'er  they  can; 
Prince  Halbert  he  vill  allvays  be 
My  own  dear  Fancy  Man.' 

"There  is  another  prose  composition  in  the  form  of 
a  catechism.  This  is  performed  by  two  gentlemen,  and 
opens  thus: 

"Question. — ^Vell,  Mr.  Bull,  Sir,  what  is  your  private 
opinions  vith  respectin'  to  German  sassages — fresh  and 
imported.  Sir,  from  Saxe  Humbug  and  Go-to-her.? 

"Answer  (in  a  melancholy  growl). — ^My  opinion  is. 
Sir,  as  they  comes  very  dear. 

"Question. — Supposin',  Mr.  Bull,  as  these  here 
foreign  sassages  wos  to  cost  the  country  a  matter  of 
thirty  thousand  pound  per  annewum,  who  do  you  think 
ought  to  spend  that  'ere  wast  and  enormous  expenditer  ? 

"Answer. — Them  as  awails  theirselves  o'  the  sassages 
aforesaid.    (A  laugh  in  the  crowd.) 


244  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"Question. — Then,  in  your  opinion,  Mr.  Bull,  they're 
a  dear  commodity.? 

"Answer. — I  consider,  Sir,  as  they  would  be  uncom- 
mon dear  at  any  price,  and  what  I  says  is,  let  us  revert 
to  the  good  wholesome  home-made  dairy-fed  native  sas- 
sages — the  Cambridge  sassages  of  right  down  English 
manafacter — the  Protestant  sassages  as  our  forefathers 
and  Marshal  Blucher  fought  and  bled  for.  (Great  ap- 
plause.) 

"(Both  sing)  : 

"Oh  didn't  the  Prince  look  as  sweet  as  new  honey 
Ven  Melbourne  said,  Johnny  should  get  the  full  money; 
And  isn't  his  missis  with  Joe  rayther  vild, 
Now  they're  almost  too  proud  to  vet-nurse  the  child." 

Dickens  had  a  very  high  regard  for  Milnes  as  a  literary 
man,  as  a  friend  of  literary  men,  as  an  enlightened  and 
Liberal  politician,  as  a  champion  of  the  oppressed,  and  as 
a  man  of  very  exceptional  charm.  Here  is  an  estimate  of 
this  fine  man  taken  from  a  mere  book  of  reference:  "A 
Maecenas  of  poets,  he  got  Lord  Tennyson  the  laureateship, 
soothed  the  dying  hours  of  poor  David  Gray,  and  was  one 
of  the  first  to  recognise  Mr.  Swinburne's  genius.  .  .  .  Be- 
sides this,  he  was  a  traveller,  a  philanthropist,  an  unrivalled 
after-dinner  speaker,  and  Rogers's  successor  in  the  art  of 
breakfast-giving.  .  .  .  He  championed  oppressed  nationali- 
ties, liberty  of  conscience,  fugitive  slaves,  the  rights  of 
women ;  and  carried  a  bill  for  establishing  reformatories." 
Add  to  this  his  culture  and  his  great  social  charm,  and  it 
is  very  easy  to  understand  that  he  possessed  a  very  strong 
attraction  for  Dickens.  His  liberal  views,  we  may  be  sure, 
appealed  to  Dickens,  and  his  never-failing  readiness  to  help 
literature  and  literary  men  could  not  but  win  liim  the  re- 
gard of  a  man  who  was  so  jealous  of  the  dignity  and  good 
name  of  his  profession.  The  two  men  had  much  in  common, 
and  their  friendship  was  very  natural.  Milnes  had  the 
same  high  opinion  of  Dickens's  gifts  that  nearly  all  the  world 
had,  and  he  also  came  under  the  magic  spell  of  the  man's  per- 
sonality. Dickens,  too,  appreciated  Milnes  the  poet.  The 
latter  sent  him  a  copy  of  his  "Palm  Leaves"  in  1844,  and 
here  is  his  acknowledgment: 


RICHARD  MONCKTON  MILNES      245 

"I  have  not  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  your  highly 
esteemed  present  because  I  think  it  a  poor  compliment 
to  thank  an  author  for  his  book  without  having  first 
read  it.  I  am  now  in  a  condition  to  thank  you,  and 
honestly  to  assure  you  that  the  elegance,  tenderness, 
and  thouglitful  fancy  of  the  'Palm  Leaves'  have  greatly 
charmed  me,  and  have  made  an  impression  on  me  such 
as  I  believe  you  would  yourself  desire  and  would  be 
satisfied  with — fully." 

In  1869  Milnes  (then,  of  course,  Lord  Houghton)  spoke 
at  the  Liverpool  banquet  to  Dickens.  He  expressed  regret 
that  Dickens  abstained  from  public  life,  and  (in  Forster's 
words)  "half  reproached  him  for  alleged  unkindly  senti- 
ments to  the  House  of  Lords."  Dickens  waxed  rather 
vehement  in  denying  the  latter  charge,  and  referring  to  the 
number  of  members  of  the  upper  House  whom  he  counted 
personal  friends,  said:  "Taking  these  circumstances  into 
consideration,  I  was  rather  amazed  by  my  noble  friend's 
accusation."  And  he  added:  "When  I  asked  him,  on  his 
sitting  do-wTi,  what  amazing  devil  possessed  him  to  make 
this  charge,  he  replied  that  he  liad  never  forgotten  the  days 
of  Lord  Verisopht.  Then,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  under- 
stood it  all.  Because  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  the 
days  when  that  depreciative  and  profoundly  unnatural  char- 
acter was  invented  there  was  no  Lord  Houghton  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  And  there  was  in  the  House  of  Commons 
a  rather  indifferent  member  called  Richard  Monckton 
Milnes." 

Then  he  took  up  the  other  charge,  prefacing  his  reply 
with  "here  I  am  more  serious."  The  reply  was  that  well- 
known  passage  in  which  he  declared  his  life-long  determina- 
tion that  literature  should  be  his  sole  profession  by  which 
he  would  stand  or  fall.  Commenting  on  this,  Forster  says: 
"Here,  however,  he  probably  failed  to  see  the  entire  meaning 
of  Lord  Houghton's  regret,  which  would  seem  to  have  been 
meant  to  say  in  more  polite  form,  that  to  have  taken  some 
part  in  public  affairs  might  have  shown  him  the  difficulty 
in  a  free  state  of  providing  remedies  very  swiftly  for  evils 
of  long  growth."  That  difiiculty  Dickens  never  seems  fully 
to  have  realised. 


246  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

But  this  little  difference  of  opinion  made  no  difference  to 
their  friendship,  and  in  another  public  speech — in  his 
Literary  Fund  address  in  1866 — Lord  Houghton  made  a 
very  appreciative  reference  to  Dickens,  who  acknowledged 
it:  "Many  thanks  for  your  kindness  in  sending  me  the 
printed  notes  of  your  Literary  Fund  address,  and  many 
more  for  your  reference  to  myself.  It  is  a  touching  and 
acceptable  reminder  to  me  that  a  good  many  years  have 
gone  by  since  we  first  knew  each  other." 

With  Lady  Houghton,  too,  Dickens  was  on  pleasant  terms 
of  friendship,  and  I  am  able  to  quote  one  letter  to  her.  It 
is  dated  July  18,  1862: 

"I  think  the  photograph  of  your  charming  labour  of 
love  from  the  Cricket  comes  out  exceedingly  well: 
though  it  does  not  render  full  justice  to  the  delicac}' 
and  beauty  of  your  design.  It  is  highly  interesting 
to  me  to  have  it,  and  I  thank  you  for  it  heartilj'. 

"I  am  glad  you  like  Copperfield.  It  is  far  more  in- 
teresting to  me  than  any  of  the  other  Readings,  and  I 
am  half  ashamed  to  confess — even  to  you — what  a 
tenderness  I  have  for  it." 

Lord  Houghton's  biographer^  tells  us  that  there  was  a 
very  old  tie  uniting  the  family  at  Fryson  with  the  author 
of  Pickwick.  "When  Lady  Houghton,"  he  says,  "was  a 
girl  at  Crewe,  the  person  who  filled  the  responsible  office  of 
housekeeper  at  Crewe  Hall  was  a  Mrs.  Dickens,  the  grand- 
mother of  Charles."  Lady  Houghton,  he  adds,  used  to  say 
that  when  she  was  a  child  the  greatest  treat  that  could  be 
given  to  herself  and  her  brother  and  sister  was  an  afternoon 
in  the  housekeeper's  room,  "for  Mrs.  Dickens  was  an  in- 
imitable story-teller,  and  she  loved  to  have  the  children 
round  her,  and  to  beguile  them,  not  only  with  fairy  tales, 
but  -^vith  reminiscences  of  her  own  and  stories  from  the  pages 
of  history.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  when,  after  her 
marriage,  Lady  Houghton  became  personally  acquainted 
with  Charles  Dickens  she  should  feel  a  peculiar  interest  in 
him.  Not  very  long  before  Dickens's  death  a  dinner  was 
» T.  Wemyss  Reid. 


RICHARD  MONCKTON  MILNES      247 

arranged  at  Lady  Houghton's  town  house  chiefly  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  King  of 
the  Belgians  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  great  writer." 

When  Dickens  died,  Lord  Houghton  wrote  to  his  son, 
the  present  Marquis  of  Crewe:  "I  fear  you  never  saw 
Charles  Dickens.  When  he  dined  with  us  to  meet  the  Prince 
of  Wales  he  pressed  us  to  visit  Gadsliill  any  day,  and  we 
might  have  been  there  at  the  time  of  seizure.  He  has  died 
happily  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame."  But  the  son  had  met 
Dickens,  for  he  writes  to  me:  "I  can  well  remember  seeing 
the  great  man  at  Upper  Brook  Street,  where  my  father  then 
lived,  my  sister  and  I  having  come  down  after  dinner.  But 
no  special  point  attaches  to  the  recollection,  though  his 
appearance  is  vividly  clear  to  my  mind." 

Proof  that  Lord  Houghton  was  an  intimate  friend  of 
Dickens's  is  provided  by  the  fact  that  it  was  through  him 
that  Dean  Stanley  made  the  offer  of  a  grave  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 


CHAPTER  XLV 

W,   J.   FOX  AND  THE  REV.   WILLIAM  HARNESS 

The  private  reading  of  The  Chimes  at  Forster's  chambers 
in  December  18-i4,  to  which  several  references  have  been 
made,  was  of  far-reaching  influence  in  Dickens's  life.  It 
was  the  forerunner  of  the  historic  readings  with  which  he 
took  this  country  and  America  by  storm  in  the  last  dozen 
years  of  his  life,  and  which  undoubtedly  cut  short  that  life. 
And  out  of  it  also  arose  those  amateur  theatricals  which  be- 
came so  famous.  There  remain  three  who  were  present  on 
that  occasion  to  whom  no  reference  has  yet  been  made.  Dyce 
was  present  as  Forster's  friend.  By  virtue  of  that  friend- 
ship he  was,  of  course,  well  acquainted  with  Dickens,  but 
he  was  never  a  member  of  the  Dickens  circle,  and  calls  for 
no  more  mention  here.  William  Johnson  Fox  also  was  more 
Forster's  friend  that  Dickens's,  and  never  penetrated  be- 
yond the  outer  Dickens  circle.  I  doubt  if  his  personality 
was  such  as  to  appeal  very  much  to  Dickens,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  his  ardent  advocacy  of  every  sort  of  reform  that 
had  Dickens's  passionate  sympathy  could  not  but  win  him 
the  esteem  of  the  novelist.  Intellectually — or  rather, 
politically — they  had  almost  everything  in  common.  Fox, 
when  Dickens  first  knew  him,  was  a  Unitarian  minister,  and 
we  know  that  in  those  early  days  the  novelist  was  much 
drawn  to  the  Unitarian  creed.  He  was,  next  to  Cobden  and 
Bright,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  anti-Corn  Law  orators, 
and  Dickens  felt  very  strongly  on  that  question.  But  more 
important  than  that  in  Dickens's  eyes,  we  may  be  sure,  was 
Fox's  advocacy  of  popular  education.  There  was  no  reform 
which  Dickens  more  earnestly  and  consistently  urged  all  his 
life,  and  Fox  was  the  first  man  to  introduce  a  Bill  into 
Parliament  to  bring  it  about. 

But  though  on  political  questions  the  two  men  were  abso- 
248 


W.  J.  FOX  AND  REV.  W.  HARNESS  249 

lutely  at  one,  they  had  nothing  else  in  common.  Why,  then, 
was  Fox  invited  to  the  Lincobi's  Inn  reading?  Mainly,  in 
all  probability,  because  he  was  one  of  the  most  powerful 
journalistic  advocates  of  social  reform,  and  in  The  Chimes 
Dickens  was  hoping  to  strike  a  great  blow  for  the  poor. 
Carlyle,  Jerrold,  Maclise,  and  Harness  were  invited  for  quite 
different  reasons. 

Fox's  chief  association  with  Dickens  was  in  connection 
with  the  "Daily  News,"  on  the  staff  of  wliich  he  was  engaged 
as  a  leader-writer.  We  are  told  that  the  appointment  was 
due  to  Forster's  influence  with  Dickens,  but  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  novelist  was  glad  to  secure  the  services  of  so  able 
a  journalist,  whose  views  were  so  completely  in  sympathy 
with  the  avowed  policy  of  the  paper.  Fox's  daughter  says: 
"The  paper  promised  to  be  as  Radical  as  even  Mr.  Fox  could 
desire,  Dickens's  enlightened  and  enthusiastic  views  as  to 
elevating  the  character  of  the  press,  as  to  the  crying  need 
of  popular  education,  and  for  generally  raising  the  status 
of  the  poor;  and  for  reform  of  various  social  anomalies, 
were  completely  in  sympathy  with  those  long-advocated  by 
Mr.  Fox." 

That  this  was  the  case  is  proved  by  a  note  of  Fox's  to 
Miss  Eliza  Flower:  "Forster's  position  does  not  show  him 
off  well.  It  brings  out  his  worst  points.  Dickens  and  I  are 
regularly  against  him  on  almost  everything  involving  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion."  How  autocratic  Dickens  was  as  editor 
even  in  those  days  is  shown  by  his  note  to  Fox,  dated 
January  21,  1846,  in  which  he  says:  "Your  leader  most 
excellent.  I  made  bold  to  take  out  Bright's  name,  for  rea- 
sons I  liinted  at  the  other  day,  and  which  I  think  have 
validity.  He  is  unscrupulous  and  indiscreet,  Cobden  never 
so."  Which  reveals  a  curious  prejudice  which  history  does 
not  justify. 

When  Dickens  left  the  "Daily  News,"  Fox  remained, 
working  under  Forster,  but  he  had  practically  no  association 
with  the  novelist  thenceforth. 

The  Rev.  William  Harness,  who  is  depicted  in  tears  in 
Maclise's  drawing,  was  almost  an  idolator  where  Dickens 
was  concerned,  and  he  and  his  sister  were  sincerely  esteemed 
by  the  novelist.  He  was  a  simple  sociable  soul,  and  Forster 
speaks  of  occasional  days  with  him  and  his  sister  and  of 


250  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"social  entertainments"  with  him,  but  he  was  twenty-two 
years  older  than  Dickens,  and  a  staid  London  clergyman, 
vv'ith  views  that  were  none  too  broad,  and  there  could  not 
be  any  deep  sympathy  between  the  two.  I  think  the  Rev. 
A.  G.  L'Estrange  sums  up  their  relations  very  accurately 
in  his  "Literary  Life  of  the  Rev.  William  Harness." 

"Dickens,"  he  says,  "was  a  very  kind  friend  to  Mr. 
Harness;  he  regarded  him  as  one  of  the  literary  men 
of  the  past,  and  occasionally  asked  his  opinion  and 
sent  him  little  presents,  which  were  of  course  gratify- 
ing. Mr.  Harness  fully  appreciated  the  great  novelist 
and  his  works,  and  was  supremely  happy  whenever  he 
could  persuade  'Charles'  to  be  a  guest  at  his  table. 
When  Dickens  was  giving  readings  in  his  later  years 
he  told  Mr.  Harness  that  he  would  always  have  a  chair 
placed  for  him  close  to  the  platform ;  but  Mr.  Harness 
never  accepted  the  kind  offer,  although  he  attended 
all  his  recitations,  and  on  these  appointed  nights  it  was 
impossible  to  persuade  him  to  accept  any  invitations." 

On  the  one  side,  an  enthusiastic  admiration  and  worship; 
on  the  other,  a  genuine  respect  for  a  much  older  man  who 
had  achieved  some  distinction  in  the  literary  world  before 
Pickwick  was  thought  of:  that  is  all.  How  could  there  be 
a  very  close  sympathy  between  Dickens  and  a  man  who 
held  the  views  that  "people  should  be  educated  according 
to  their  stations" !  "It  is  certainly  just  and  right,"  says 
the  Rev.  William  Harness,  "kind  to  the  individual  and  ad- 
vantageous to  the  public,  that  every  man  endowed  with 
extraordinary  talents  such  as  Sir  Robert  Arkwright  and 
Professor  Lee  should,  however  humble  his  circumstances,  be 
afforded  the  educational  moans  of  raising  himself  above  it. 
To  effect  this,  if  he  be  imbued  with  sound  Christian  prin- 
ciples as  his  guide,  reading  and  writing — the  ability  of  col- 
lecting the  ideas  of  others  and  imparting  his  own — are 
quite  sufficient." 

We  still  meet  with  this  point  of  view  to-day:  it  was  com- 
moner sixty  or  seventy  years  ago,  but  Dickens  never  had 
any  patience  with  it,  and  he  could  not  have  been  in  much 
sympathy  with  a  man  who  could  think  thus. 


W.  J.  FOX  AND  REV.  W.  HARNESS  251 

The  Rev.  A.  G.  L'Estrange  tells  us  that  notes  frequently 
passed  between  Dickens  and  Harness,  but  that  they  were 
unimportant,  "though  always  neatly  worded";  and  he  adds 
that  Dickens  was  too  fully  engaged  to  write  long  letters, 
"even  had  he  not  been  a  man  of  too  active  a  character  to 
spend  his  time  in  that  way."  Which  makes  curious  reading 
to  those  who  know  what  a  voluminous  letter-writer  the 
novelist  was !  The  truth  is  that  Harness  was  not  the  man 
to  whom  Dickens  could  "let  himself  go"  in  any  sense.  He 
had  the  novelist's  esteem,  but  there  never  existed  anything 
like  an  intimacy, 


CHAPTER  XLVI 


MR.  AND  MRS.  WATSON 


Dickens  spent  the  summer  of  1846  in  Switzerland,  and 
at  Lausanne  formed  some  of  the  most  appreciated  friend- 
ships of  his  hfe.  Chiefest  among  these  was  that  with  the 
Hon.  R.  and  Mrs.  Watson.  It  struck  a  note  of  earnestness 
and  affection  that  was  quite  remarkable  even  for  him.  For 
both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Watson  he  formed  an  extraordinary 
regard.  "I  loved  him  as  my  heart,"  he  wrote  to  Charles 
Knight  when  Watson  died,  "I  cannot  think  of  him  without 
tears."  A  few  years  later  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Watson:  "I 
send  you  my  sincere  love,  I  am  always  truthful  to  the  dear 
old  days  and  the  memory  of  one  of  the  dearest  friends  I 
ever  loved."  And  of  Mrs.  Watson  he  wrote  to  Mary  Boyle 
in  1858:  "You  know  what  an  affection  I  have  for  Mufs. 
Watson,  and  how  happy  it  made  me  to  see  her  again." 

During  that  summer  of  1846  they  had  many  happy  days 
together,  seeing  all  the  sights,  and  the  memory  of  those 
days  lasted  with  Dickens  to  the  end  of  liis  life. 

His  letters  to  Mrs.  Watson  (her  husband  died  in  1852) 
were  frequent  and  lengthy  thenceforth,  and  in  almost  all 
of  them  we  find  some  winsome  reference  to  "the  tender  grace 
of  a  day  that  is  dead."  It  was  indeed,  as  Mrs.  Watson's 
daughter  has  said,  "a  most  remarkable  friendship"  that 
sprang  up,  and  after  Watson  had  gone,  it  was  maintained 
in  all  its  earnestness  with  the  widow. 

Dickens's  first  visit  to  Rockingham  Castle,  the  Northamp- 
tonshire home  of  the  Watsons,  was  paid  at  the  end  of  1849. 
During  that  visit  he  wrote  an  amusing  letter  to  Forster: 

"Picture  to  yourself,  my  dear  F.,  a  large  old- 
fashioned  castle,  approached  by  an  ancient  keep,  port- 
cullis, etc.,  etc.,  filled  with  company,  waited  on  by  six- 

252 


MR.  AND   MRS.  WATSON  253 

and-twenty  servants;  the  slops  (and  wine-glasses)  con- 
tinually being  emptied;^  and  my  clothes  (with  myself 
in  them)  always  being  carried  off  to  all  sorts  of  places ; 
and  you  will  have  a  faint  idea  of  the  mansion  in  which 
I  am  at  present  staying.  I  should  have  written  to  you 
yesterday,  but  for  having  had  a  very  busy  day.  Among 
the  guests  is  a  Miss  B.,"  sister  of  the  Honourable  Miss 
B.  (of  Salem,  Mass.)  whom  we  once  met  at  the  house 
of  our  distinguished  literary  countryman.  Colonel 
Landor.  This  lady  is  renowned  as  an  amateur  actress, 
so  last  night  we  got  up  in  the  great  hall  some  scenes 
from  the  'School  for  Scandal' ;  the  scene  with  the 
lunatic  on  the  wall,  from  the  Nicholas  NicMehy  of 
Major-General  the  Hon.  C.  Dickens  (Richmond,  Va.)  ; 
some  conjuring;  and  then  finished  off  with  country 
dances ;  of  which  we  had  two  admirably  good  ones, 
quite  new  to  mc,  though  really  old.  Getting  the  words, 
and  making  preparations  occupied  (as  you  may  be- 
lieve) the  whole  day,  and  it  was  three  o'clock  before 
I  got  to  bed.  It  was  an  excellent  entertainment,  and 
we  were  all  uncommonly  merry.  ...  Of  all  the  coun- 
try houses  and  estates  I  have  yet  seen  in  England,  I 
think  this  is  by  far  the  best.  Everything  undertaken 
eventuates  in  a  most  magnificent  hospitality.  ...  At 
a  future  time  it  will  be  my  duty  to  report  on  the 
turnips,  mangel-wurzels,  ploughs,  and  live-stock;  and 
for  the  present  I  will  only  say  that  I  regard  it  as 
fortunate  for  the  neighbouring  community  that  this 
patrimony  should  have  fallen  to  my  spirited  and  en- 
lightened host.  Every  one  has  profited  by  it,  and  the 
labouring  people  in  especial  are  thoroughly  well  cared 
for  and  looked  after.  To  see  all  the  household,  headed 
by  an  enormously  fat  housekeeper,  occupying  the  back 
benches  last  night,  laughing  and  applauding  without 
any  restraint;  and  to  see  a  blushing,  sleek-headed  foot- 
man produce,  for  the  watch-trick,  a  silver  watch  of 
the  most  portentous  dimensions,  amidst  the  rapturous 

» The  letter  was  written  in  the  character  of  an  American  visitor  to  England, 
in  parody  of  a  book  recently  published.     See  Miscellaneous  Papers:    "An 
American  in  Europe." 
=  Miss  Mary  Boyle. 


254  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

delight  of  his  brethren  and  sisterhood;  was  a  very 
pleasant  spectacle,  even  to  a  conscientious  republican 
like  yourself  or  me.  .   .  ." 

Forster  says :  "Dickens,  during  the  too  brief  time  liis 
excellent  friend  was  spared  to  liim,  often  repeated  his  visits 
to  Rockingham,  always  a  surpassing  enjoyment;  and  in  the 
winter  of  1850  he  accomplished  there,  with  help  of  the  coun- 
try carpenter,  'a  very  elegant  little  theatre,'  of  which  he 
constituted  himself  manager."  And  he  adds  that  after  the 
performance  Dickens  took  part  in  a  country  dance,  which 
lasted  far  into  the  morning,  travelled  120  miles  to  London 
the  next  day,  and  dined  with  the  Prime  Minister  in  the 
evening.  F.  G.  Kitton,  in  "The  Dickens  Country,"  also  says 
that  this  performance  took  place  in  1850,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  was  in  January  1851.  The  pieces  played  were 
"Used  Up"  and  "Animal  Magnetism,"  and  for  the  latter 
Dickens  wrote  a  "tag"  for  the  occasion,  of  which  I  quote 
the  concluding  lines : 

"  Stay  yet  again.     Among  us  all  I  feel 
One  subtle,  all-pervading  influence  steal, 
Stirring  one  wish  within  our  heart  and  head; 
Bright  be  the  path  our  host  and  hostess  tread! 
Blest  be  their  children,  happy  be  their  race, 
Long  may  they  live,  this  ancient  hall  to  grace; 
Long  bear  of  English  virtues  noble  fruit — 
Green-hearted  Rockingham!  strike  deep  thy  root." 

At  this  time  he  was  busy  on  Copperfield,  which  was  to  be 
dedicated  to  the  Watsons.  In  July  1850  he  had  written: 
"Every  one  is  cheering  David  on,  and  I  hope  to  make  ijour 
book  a  good  one.  I  hke  it  very  much  myself — thoroughly 
believe  in  it  all,  and  go  to  the  work  every  month  with  an 
energy  of  the  finest  description."  The  fact  that  he  dedi- 
cated his  "favourite  child"  to  these  friends  is  strongest  pos- 
sible proof  of  the  earnestness  of  the  regard  he  had  for 
them. 

The  next  book  to  Copperfield  was  Bleak  House,  and  in 
this  he  immortalised  Rockingham  Castle  as  Chesney  Wold, 
There  is  nothing  speculative  in  this  as  there  is  with  so  many 
"Dickens-land"  identifications.  We  have  his  own  authority 
for  it,  for  in  a  letter  to  Mrs,  Watson,  he  wrote:  "In  some 
of  the  descriptions  of  Chesney  Wold  I  have  taken  many  bits, 


K()(  Ki.NUHAAr   Castik.  Xol;THA^rl'T()^sHIKl•:,  thk   Home  of  the 
Ho-v.  Mu.  AM)  Mus.  Kkhakd  Watso.n 


The  Hon.  Richard  Watson 


The  Hon.  :Mk.s.  Rkhard  Watson 


MR.  AND  MRS.  WATSON  255 

€1110%   about  trees   and  shadows,  from  observations  made 
at  Rockingham." 

In  August  1852  Mr,  Watson  died,  and  Dickens  was 
greatly  distressed.  He  had  been  at  Rockingham  in  the 
spring,  and  had  been  shocked  by  liis  friend's  decline,  but 
death  was  not  anticipated,  and  when  it  came  the  novelist 
was  pained  as  he  rarely  was  by  such  an  event. 

"I  cannot  bear,"  he  wrote  to  the  widow,  "to  be  silent 
longer,  though  I  know  full  well — no  one  better,  I  think, 
how  5'our  love  for  him,  and  your  trust  in  God,  and 
your  love  for  3'our  cliildren  will  have  come  to  the  help 
of  such  a  nature  as  yours,  and  whispered  better  things 
than  any  friendship  can,  however  faithful  and  affec- 
tionate. 

"We  held  him  so  close  in  our  hearts — all  of  us  here 
— and  have  been  so  happy  with  him,  and  so  used  to 
say  how  good  he  was,  and  what  a  gentle,  generous, 
noble  spirit  he  had,  and  how  he  shone  out  among  com- 
mon men  as  something  so  real  and  genuine,  and  full 
of  every  kind  of  worthiness,  that  it  has  often  brought 
the  tears  into  my  eyes  to  talk  of  him;  we  have  been 
so  accustomed  to  do  this  when  we  looked  forward  to 
years  of  unchanged  intercourse,  that  now,  when  every- 
thing but  truth  goes  down  into  the  dust,  those  recol- 
lections which  make  the  sword  so  sharp  pour  balm  into 
the  wound.  And  if  it  be  a  consolation  to  us  to  know 
the  virtues  of  his  character,  and  the  reasons  that  we 
had  for  loving  him,  O  how  much  greater  is  your  com- 
fort who  were  so  devoted  to  him,  and  were  the  happiness 
of  his  life ! 

"May  God,  who  has  received  into  His  rest  through 
this  affliction  as  good  a  man  as  ever  I  can  know  and 
love  and  mourn  for  on  this  earth,  be  good  to  you, 
dear  friends,  through  these  coming  years !  May  all 
those  compassionate  and  hopeful  lessons  of  the  great 
Teacher  who  shed  divine  tears  for  the  dead  bring  their 
full  comfort  to  you!  I  have  no  fear  of  that,  my  con- 
fidence is  certainty. 


256  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"If  you  should  ever  set  up  a  record  In  the  little 
church,  I  would  try  to  word  it  myself,  and  God  knows 
out  of  the  fulness  of  my  heart,  if  you  should  think 
it  well. 

"My  dear  Friends,  yours  with  the  truest  ajffection 
and  sympathy." 

Mrs.  Watson's  daughter  says  that  Dickens  kept  up  his 
letter-writing  to  her  mother  "with  the  same  bubbling  over 
thoughts  and  rare  good  literature."  So  he  did,  until  he 
himself  went  to  join  his  well-loved  friend;  and  every  letter 
breathed  the  sincerity  and  depth  of  liis  friendship. 


CHAPTER  XLVII 

WILLIAM   HALDIMAND,    MONS.    DE   CERJAT,   AND  THE 
BROOKFIELDS 

The  friendship  with  WilHam  Haldimand  was,  next  to 
that  with  the  Watsons,  the  most  valued  of  those  formed  at 
Lausanne.  Formerly  a  member  of  Parliament,  he  had  left 
England  and  settled  in  Lausanne,  where  he  had  a  fine  seat 
just  below  Rosemont  and  where,  as  Forster  says,  "his  char- 
acter and  situation  had  made  him  quite  the  little  sovereign 
of  the  place.  Inevitably  Dickens  met  him  directly  he  ar- 
rived in  the  town,  and  was  so  heartily  received  and  so 
pleasantly  entertained  that  a  great  friendship  sprang  up. 
He  paid  a  tribute  to  those  happy  days  and  pleasant  friend- 
ships by  dedicating  The  Battle  of  Life,  published  in  that 
same  year,  to  his  English  friends  in  Switzerland — "a  dedi- 
cation," he  wrote  to  Haldimand,  "that  is  printed  in 
illuminated  capitals  on  my  heart."  Writing  in  November, 
he  said: 

"I  shall  trouble  you  with  a  little  parcel  of  three  or 
four  copies  to  distribute  to  those  whose  names  will  be 
found  written  in  them,  as  soon  as  they  can  be  made 
ready,  and  believe  me,  that  there  is  no  success  or  ap- 
proval in  the  great  world  beyond  the  Jura  that  will 
be  more  precious  and  delightful  to  me  than  the  hope  that 
I  shall  be  remembered  of  an  evening  in  the  coming  winter 
time,  at  one  or  two  friends'  I  could  mention  near  the 
Lake  of  Geneva.  It  runs  with  a  spring  tide  that  will 
always  flow  and  never  ebb  through  my  memory;  and 
nothing  less  than  the  waters  of  Lethe  shall  confuse  the 
music  of  its  running,  until  it  loses  itself  in  that  great 
sea,  for  which  all  the  currents  of  our  life  are  desperately 
bent." 

257 


258  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

In  the  following  April  the  novelist's  fifth  son  was  born, 
and  Dickens  paid  further  tribute  to  that  Lausanne  holiday 
by  inviting  Haldimand  to  become  godfather. 

Meetings  between  the  friends  were  of  course  rare — in- 
deed, as  far  as  I  can  find,  they  never  did  actually  meet 
after  1847. 

It  should  be  added  that  M.  de  Cerjat  and  his  wife — 
"clever  and  agreeable  both  far  beyond  the  ordinary,"  says 
Forster — took  jjart  in  most  of  the  happy  excursions  at 
Lausanne,  and  after  Dickens's  return  to  England,  de  Cerjat 
began  a  custom  of  writing  Dickens  a  long  letter  every 
Christmas,  Practically  without  a  break  this  custom  was 
continued  until  de  Cerjat's  death  in  1869,  Dickens  reply- 
ing regularly.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  novelist's  letters  are 
preserved,  and  they  prove  the  depth  of  the  friendship  that 
he  entertained  for  de  Cerjat;  they  are  among  the  longest 
and  most  charming  of  all  his  letters,  and  certainly  are  the 
most  "news3^"  I  can  find  no  record  of  it  anywhere,  but 
the  following  sentence  in  the  last  letter  of  the  series,  written 
in  January  1869,  certainly  suggests  that  de  Cerjat  had 
visited  England  and  been  a  guest  at  Gadshill:  "You 
wouldn't  recognise  Gadshill  now;  I  have  so  changed  it  and 
bought  land  about  it."  Certain  it  is  that  the  friends  met 
in  1853,  for  Dickens,  in  a  letter  from  Milan,  in  October 
of  that  year,  records  that  "Cerjat  accompanied  us  on  a 
miserably  wet  morning,  in   a  heavy  rain,  down  the  lake." 

There  was  a  lesser  friendship  of  which  the  seed  was  sown 
at  Lausanne.  Henry  Hallam  (with  whom  Dickens  was 
acquainted)  came  on  a  visit  to  Haldimand.  Writing  to 
Forster  about  the  visit,  Dickens  said :  "Heavens !  how 
Hallam  did  talk  yesterday !  I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  him 
so  trenmendous.  Very  good-natured  and  pleasant,  in  his 
way,  but  Good  Heavens !  how  he  did  talk.  That  famous  day 
you  and  I  remember  was  nothing  to  it.  His  son  was  with 
him,  and  his  daughter  (who  has  an  impediment  in  her 
speech,  as  if  nature  were  determined  to  balance  that  faculty 
in  the  family),  and  his  niece,  a  pretty  woman,  the  wife  of 
a  clergyman  and  a  friend  of  Thackeray's.  It  strikes  me 
that  she  must  be  *the  little  woman'  he  proposed  to  take  us 
to  drink  tea  with,  once,  in  Golden  Square.  Don't  you  re- 
member.?    His  great  favourite?     She  is  quite  a  charming 


MONS.   DE   CERJAT  259 

person,  anyhow."  The  great  favourite  of  Thackeray's  was 
Mrs.  Brookfield,  wife  of  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Brookfield.  The 
Editors  of  Dickens's  Letters  declare  that  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
and  Mrs.  Brookfield  were  held  in  high  estimation  by  the 
novelist.  We  may  accept  that  readily  enough,  but  I  very 
strongly  doubt  if  Brookfield  was  ever  a  friend.  They  were 
fairly  well  acquainted — sufficiently  well  for  Dickens  to  seek 
Brookfield's  advice  in  the  choice  of  a  tutor  for  one  of  his 
sons — but  I  cannot  imagine  what  they  could  have  had  in 
common,  save  certain  mutual  friendsliips — with  the  Procters 
in  particular.  There  was  a  consciousness  of  intellectual 
superiority  about  Brookfield  that  could  never  have  had  any 
charm  for  Dickens.  There  seems  to  have  been,  too,  a 
decidedly  un-Dickensian  vein  of  uncharitableness  in  him. 
It  is  not  pleasing  to  observe  the  tone  in  which  he  speaks  in 
some  of  his  letters  of  some  of  liis  brother  clerics;  one  he 
dismisses  in  charmingly  Christian  fashion  as  "the  fool." 
There  is  an  atmosphere  of  "superior  person"  about  him  all 
the  time. 

Five  3^ears  before  his  wife  met  the  novelist,  he  had  written 
to  her:  "I  detest  Humphrey's  Clock  more  than  I  can  tell 
you — I  really  find  no  genius  in  it.  Except  Swiveller  and 
Mrs.  Jarley  I  have  not  found  a  natural  character  in  the 
story.  (All  the  rest  are  badly  selected — badly  conceived — 
badly  overdrawn.)  Not  one  of  them  is  a  type  of  a  class. 
And  for  structure,  surely  never  was  a  story  worse.  No — 
Dickens  won't  do."  So  away  had  gone  Dickens  with  a  sweep 
of  the  arm,  in  the  true  Podsnappian  manner! 

In  1845  he  had  written  in  his  diary:  "In  the  evening 
read  Dickens's  Chimes,  as  utter  trash  as  was  ever  trodden 
underfoot."  Two  years  later  he  wrote  to  his  wife :  "Domhey, 
if  possible,  viler  than  ever."  In  1844  he  attended  the 
Artists'  dinner,  and  wrote  afterwards  to  his  wife :  "Dickens 
spoke  shortly  and  well  enough,  but  it  had  a  very  cut  and 
dried  air  and  rather  pompous  and  shapely  in  its  construc- 
tion and  delivered  in  a  rather  sonorous  deep  voice.  Not  a 
jot  of  humour  in  it.  He  looks  like  Milnes,  same  height  and 
shape,  still  longer  hair,  but  not  his  demoniacal  good  humour 
of  expression."  So  we  see  that  whilst  he  regarded  Dickens's 
work  as  trash,  he  also  refused  to  acknowledge  that  the 
novelist   was    a   gifted  public   speaker,   in   which   I   declare 


260  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

positively  he  stands  absolutely  alone.  Broolcfield  was  on 
most  intimate  terms  with  one  of  Dickens's  best  loved  friends 
— R.  W.  Procter ;  he  was  especially  intimate  with  Thackeray, 
who  was  friendly  with  Dickens  from  the  Pickwick  days; 
yet  Dickens's  letter  from  Lausanne  makes  it  very  clear  that 
they  had  not  met  up  to  1846.  When  they  did  meet  I  do 
not  know,  but  the  first  recorded  meeting  was  at  the  Procters' 
in  January  1859.  It  seems  inconceivable  that  he  should 
have  allowed  another  twelve  years  to  elapse  before  becom- 
ing personally  acquainted  with  the  novelist,  but  it  would 
appear  that  that  was  the  case.  The  only  possible  con- 
clusion to  be  drawn  from  all  these  facts  is  that  Brookfield 
did  not  want  to  know  Dickens.  But  indeed,  he  was  out  of 
sympathy  with  Dickens  and  things  Dickensian.  The  two 
men  did  become  fairly  well  acquainted,  but  never  in  the 
least  degree  intimate.  As  the  authors  of  "Mrs.  Brookfield 
and  her  Circle"  put  it,  Brookfield  always  kept  up  with  him 
"a  pleasant  if  not  particularly  close  friendship."  To  sum 
up,  Brookfield  was  too  "superior"  for  the  Dickens  Circle; 
Dickens  could  never  have  been  at  home  in  the  Brookfield  Set. 

With  Mrs.  Brookfield  there  was  a  pleasant  friendliness. 
She  was  a  woman  of  exceptional  charm,  with  a  far  greater 
capacity  for  friendship  than  her  husband  possessed,  and 
Dickens  certainly  was  one  of  her  greatest  admirers.  She 
gave  him  an  unpleasant  task  once.  She  sent  him  the  manu- 
script of  a  novel  she  had  written,  hoping  that  he  might  find 
it  suitable  for  All  the  Year  Round.  He  did  not,  and  he 
"turned  it  down"  in  a  letter  that  bears  tribute  alike  to  his 
friendship  for  her  and  to  his  consideration  for  the  feelings 
of  another.  He  told  her  why  the  book  was  unsuitable  for 
publication  in  serial  form,  and  then  he  offered  some  kindly 
and  helpful  criticism. 

He  thought  the  book  might  be  successful  in  two-volume 
form,  supposing  "the  polishing  I  have  hinted  at  (not  a 
meretricious  adornment,  but  positively  necessary  to  good 
work  and  good  art)  to  have  been  first  thoroughly  admin- 
istered," and  he  concluded:  "Now,  don't  hate  me,  if  you 
can  help  it.  I  can  afford  to  be  hated  by  some  people,  but 
I  am  not  rich  enough  to  put  you  in  possession  of  that 
luxury." 

It  was  not  fair  of  Mrs.  Brookfield  to  give  Dickens  so 


THE  BROOKFIELDS  261 

unpleasant  a  task.  Adelaide  Procter  showed  a  much  finer 
sense  when  she  submitted  her  manuscripts  to  him  under  an 
assumed  name  so  as  not  to  embarrass  him.  But  the  task 
having  to  be  performed  it  could  not  have  been  better  done. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 

MARY   BOYLE  AND   SIR  WILLIAM   BOXALL 

Out  of  the  friendship  with  the  Watsons  sprang  that  with 
Mary  Boyle.  It  was  a  pecuHarly  charming  friendship. 
This  vivacious  young  lady  occupied  almost  a  unique  position 
in  his  regard;  she  seems  to  have  stood  in  something  of  the 
relation  of  a  daughter  to  the  novelist,  for  Mr.  Percy  Fitz- 
gerald tells  us  that  "every  night  she  enjoyed  the  special 
privilege  of  receiving  a  kiss  from  the  amiable  Boz,  wishing 
him  'good-night,'  and  coming  up  to  him  shyly  like  a  child, 
with  her  candle  in  her  hand."  Her  brilliance,  vivacity, 
wittiness,  and  imperturbable  good-nature  endeared  her  to 
Dickens  and  to  all  the  members  of  his  family.  She  was  one 
of  the  most  frequent  and  welcome  visitors  both  at  Tavistock 
House  and  at  Gadshill,  and  she  was  an  idolator  of  the 
novelist,  whom  she  first  met  in  1849. 

Her  relative,  Mrs.  Watson,  invited  her  to  Rockingham 
Castle,  and  told  her  to  look  out  at  Euston  for  the  Dickens 
family,  who  would  be  her  fellow-travellers.  She  missed  them 
at  the  station,  but  the  guard  brought  Dickens  to  her  car- 
riage, and  "a  hand  was  held  out  to  help  me  from  the 
carriage,  a  hand  that  for  twenty  successive  years  was  ever 
ready  to  grasp  mine  in  tender  friendship  or  cordial  com- 
panionship, and  whose  pressure  still  thrills  my  memory." 
She  adds:  "It  was  difficult  for  two  such  lovers  of  the 
Drama  as  Charles  Dickens  and  myself  to  meet  under  the 
same  roof  without  some  dramatic  plotting;  and  so,  during 
that  visit  we  trod  for  the  first  time  the  same  boards  to- 
gether in  a  hastily  concocted  scene  from  Nicholas  Nickleby 
— that  in  which  the  mad  neighbour  from  the  top  of  the 
garden  wall  makes  a  passionate  declaration  to  Mrs.  Nickleby. 
My  shabby-genteel  costume  with  the  widow's  cap  of  the 
262 


MARY  BOYLE  AND  SIR  W.  BOXALL  263 

period  attracted  universal  admiration  from  its  appropriate 
fitness,  while  the  amorous  outbursts  of  my  adorer  were  given 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  actor-author." 

So  impressed  was  Dickons  with  her  ability  as  an  actress 
that  in  September  1850  ho  recommended  to  Lytton  that 
she  should  be  given  a  part  in  connection  with  the  Guild  of 
Literature  and  Art  performances,  but  owing  to  a  family 
bereavement  she  was  unable  to  accept  the  invitation. 

By  this  time  she  was  an  intimate  at  Tavistock  House. 
"The  very  sound  of  the  name,"  she  says,  "is  replete  with 
memories  of  innumerable  evenings  passed  in  the  most  con- 
genial and  delightful  intercourse;  dinners  where  the  guests 
vied  with  each  other  in  brilliant  conversation,  whether  in- 
tellectual, witty,  or  sparkling — OA^enings  devoted  to  music 
or  theatricals.  First  and  foremost  of  that  magic  circle  was 
the  host  himself,  always  'one  of  us,'  who  invariably  drew 
out  what  was  best  and  most  characteristic  in  others,  who 
used  the  monosyllable  'we'  much  more  frequently  than  that 
of  'I,'  and  who  made  use  of  his  superiority  to  charm  and 
quicken  the  society  around  him,  but  never  to  crush  or  over- 
power it  with  a  sense  of  inferiority." 

Dickens's  regard  for  this  vivacious  lady  is  very  evident 
from  the  charming  letters  he  wrote  to  her.    As  for  instance; 

"It  is  all  very  well  to  protend  to  love  me,  as  you  do. 
Ah !  If  you  loved  as  /  love,  jNIary !  But  when  my 
breast  is  tortured  by  the  perusal  of  such  a  letter  as 
yours,  Falkland,  Falkland,  madam,  becomes  my  part 
in  'The  Rivals,'  and  I  play  it  with  desperate  earnest- 
ness.    As  thus: 

"Falkland  (to  Acres).  Then  you  see  her,  sir, 
sometimes  ? 

"Acres.  See  her!  Odds  beams  and  sparkles,  yes. 
See  her  acting!     Night  after  night. 

"Falkland  (aside  and  furious).  Death  and  the 
devil!  Acting,  and  I  not  there!  Pray,  sir  (with  con- 
strained calmness),  what  does  she  act? 

"Acres.  Odds,  monthly  nurses  and  babbies  !  Sairey 
Gamp  and  Betsy  Prig,  'which,  wotever  it  is,  my  dear 
(mimicking),  I  likes  it  brought  reg'lar  and  draw'd 
mild!'     That's  very  like  her. 


264  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

"Falkland.  Confusion!  Perhaps,  sir,  perhaps  she 
sometimes  acts — ha !  ha !  perhaps  she  sometimes  acts, 
I  say — eh!  sir? — a — ha,  ha,  ha!  a  fairy?  (With  great 
bitterness.) 

"Acres.  Odds,  gauzy  pinions  and  spangles,  yes! 
You  should  hear  her  sing  as  a  fairy.  You  should  see 
her  dance  as  a  fairy.  Tol  de  rol  lol — la — lol — liddle 
diddle.     (Sings  and  dances.)     That's  very  like  her. 

"Falkland.  Misery !  while  I,  devoted  to  her  image, 
can  scarcely  write  a  line  now  and  then,  or  pensively 
read  aloud  to  the  people  of  Birmingham.  (To  him.) 
And  they  applaud  her,  no  doubt  they  applaud  her, 
sir.  And  she — I  see  her !  Curtsies  and  smiles !  And 
they — curses  on  them!  they  laugh  and — ha,  ha,  ha! 
clap  their  hands — and  say  it's  very  good.  Do  they  not 
say  it's  very  good,  sir?     Tell  me.     Do  they  not? 

"Acres.  Odds,  thunderings  and  pealings,  of  course 
they  do !  and  the  third  fiddler,  little  Tweaks,  of  the 
country  town,  goes  into  fits.  Ho,  ho,  ho,  I  can't  bear 
it  (mimicking);  take  me  out!  Ha,  ha,  ha!  O  what 
a  one  she  is !  She'll  be  the  death  of  me.  Ha,  ha,  ha, 
ha!     That's  very  like  her! 

"Falkland.  Damnation !  Heartless  Mary !  (Rushes 
out.) 

"Scene  opens,  and  discloses  coals  of  fire,  heaped  up 
into  form  of  letters  representing  the  following  inscrip- 
tion: 

*'When  the  praise  thou  meetest 
To  thine  ear  is  sweetest, 
O  then 

"Remember  Joe. 

''(Curtain  falls.)'' 

Or  again:  "Enclosing  a  kiss,  if  you  will  have  the  kind- 
ness to  return  it  when  done  with.  I  have  just  been  reading 
my  Christmas  Carol  in  Yorkshire.  I  should  have  lost  my 
heart  to  the  beautiful  young  landlady  of  my  hotel  (age 
twenty-nine,  dress,  black  frock  and  jacket,  exquisitely 
braided)  if  it  had  not  been  safe  in  your  possession.     Many, 


MARY  BOYLE  AND  SIR  W.  BOXALL  ^65 

many  happy  ycai'S  to  you!"  And  in  another  letter  he 
writes:  "You  are  among  the  few  whom  I  most  care  for 
and  best  love." 

Mary  Boyle  was  continually  sending  her  idol  some  little 
token  of  her  admiration  and  regard  for  him.  He  writes  on 
December  28,  1860,  for  instance:  "I  cannot  tell  you  how 
much  I  thank  you  for  the  beautiful  cigar-case,  and  how 
seasonable,  and  friendly,  and  good,  and  warm-hearted  it 
looked  when  I  opened  it  at  Gadshill.  Besides  which,  it  is 
a  cigar-case,  and  will  hold  cigars ;  two  crowning  merits 
that  I  never  yet  knew  to  be  possessed  by  any  article  claim- 
ing the  same  name.  For  all  these  reasons,  but  more  than 
all  because  it  comes  from  you,  I  love  it,  and  send  you 
eighteen  hundred  and  sixty  kisses,  with  one  in  for  the  new 
year."  On  November  17,  1861,  he  writes:  "I  am  perfectly 
enraptured  with  the  quilt.  It  is  one  of  the  most  tasteful, 
lively,  elegant  things  I  have  ever  seen ;  and  I  need  not  tell 
you  that  while  it  is  valuable  to  me  for  its  own  ornamental 
sake,  it  is  precious  to  me  as  a  rainbow-hint  of  your  friend- 
ship and  affectionate  remembrance."  And  on  January  6, 
1869,  he  writes:  "I  was  more  affected  than  you  can  easily 
believe  by  the  sight  of  your  gift  lying  on  my  dressing-table 
on  the  morning  of  the  new  year,  .  .  .  You  may  be  sure  I 
shall  attach  a  special  interest  and  value  to  the  beautiful 
present,  and  shall  wear  it  as  a  kind  charm.  God  bless  you, 
and  may  we  carry  the  friendship  through  many  coming 
years." 

Wlien  he  was  on  his  reading  tours  this  worshipper  of  his 
contrived  to  send  him  a  button-hole  for  almost  every  read- 
ing. Even  when  he  was  in  America  in  1867  she  contrived 
to  pay  him  this  charming  little  attention,  and  we  find  him 
writing  to  Miss  Hogarth  from  Boston:  "I  find  by  going 
off  to  the  Cuba  myself  this  morning  I  can  send  you  the 
enclosed  for  Mary  Boyle  .  .  .  whose  usual  flower  for  my 
button-hole  was  produced  in  the  most  extraordinary  manner 
here  last  Monday  night !"  The'  "enclosed"  was  the  follow- 
ing letter :  "My  dear  Meery ;  You  can  have  no  idea  of  the 
glow  of  pleasure  and  amazement  with  wliich  I  saw  your 
remembrance  of  me  lying  on  my  dressing-table  here  last 
Monday  night.  .  .  .  But  you  must  go  away  four  thousand 
miles,  and  have  such  a  token  conveyed  to  ijou,  before  you 


266  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

can  quite  appreciate  the  feeling  of  receiving  it.     Ten  thou- 
sand loving  thanks." 

When  Dickens  removed  to  Gadshill,  Mary  Boyle  was  there 
almost  as  frequently  as  she  had  been  at  Tavistock  House. 
Many  were  the  summer  daj^s  passed  there,  she  says:  "In 
the  afternoon  he  sought  relaxation  and  then  the  other  in- 
mates of  the  house  came  in  for  their  share  of  his  enviable 
society,  and  the  basket  carriage  was  brought  to  the  door 
drawn  by  the  'sober  Newman  Noggs,'  the  harness  adorned 
with  musical  bells  which  his  friend  Mr.  Lehmann  had 
brought  him  from  Norway,  and  we  would  take  long  drives 
all  round  the  picturesque  neighbourhood.  Sometimes  we 
would  alight  at  a  distant  point  to  return  home  on  foot; 
sometimes  we  would  wend  our  way  through  green  hop- 
gardens on  one  side  and  golden  cornfields  on  the  other  for 
a  distance  of  many  miles ;  yet  we  never  wearied." 

A  lesser  friendship  which  Dickens  owed  to  the  Watsons 
was  that  with  Sir  William  Boxall,  R.A.,  the  famous  portrait 
painter,  whom  he  met  at  Rockingham  Castle  in  184<9. 

In  January  1850  Boxall  took  part  in  the  private 
theatricals  at  Rockingham  Castle,  playing  Fenel,  the  lawyer, 
in  "Used  Up,"  the  part  which  was  Egg's  in  the  Guild  per- 
formances. And  it  seems  evident  that  he  at  least  had  a 
hand  in  the  painting  of  the  scenery  for  the  special  theatre 
which  was  erected.  In  the  letter  to  Mrs.  Watson  announcing 
the  dates,  and  so  on,  the  novelist  wrote: 

"As  your  letter  is  decided,  the  scaffolding  shall  be 
re-erected  round  Charley's  boots  .  .  .  and  his  dressing 
proceeded  with.  I  have  been  very  much  pleased  with 
him  in  the  matter,  as  he  never  made  the  least  demonstra- 
tion of  disappointment  or  mortification,  and  was  per- 
fectly contented  to  give  in.  (Here  I  break  off  to  go 
to  Boxall.)     (Here  I  return  much  exhausted.) 

"P.S. — As  Boxall  (with  his  head  very  much  on  one 
side  and  his  spectacles  on)  danced  backwards  from  the 
canvas  incessantlv  with  great  nimbleness,  and  made 
little  digs  at  it  with  his  pencil,  with  a  horrible  grin  on 


MARY  BOYLE  AND  SIR  W.  BOXALL  267 

his  countenance,  I  auger  that  he  pleased  liimself  this 
morning." 

The  only  other  reference  we  have  to  the  friendship  is 
Forster's  statement  that  in  1856  Boxall  was  one  of  those 
whose  presence  in  Paris  contributed  to  Dickens's  enjoyment 
of  his  stay  there. 


CHAPTER  XLIX 

AMATEUE  THEATRICALS LORD  MULGEAVE 

And  now  we  meet  another  remarkable  group  of  friends. 
Dickens's  passion  for  the  theatre  had  been  reawakened  dur- 
ing his  visit  to  Canada  in  1842.  We  have  seen  in  our  first 
chapter  how  strong  that  passion  had  been  in  him  in  his 
youth;  we  know  that  only  an  accident — the  accident  of 
being  prostrated  by  a  bad  cold  on  the  very  day  that  he 
was  to  display  his  histrionic  gifts  to  Charles  Kemble — had 
prevented  liim  in  those  days  from  trying  his  fortune  on  the 
boards.  Success  in  a  higher  realm  of  art  came  to  him,  and 
the  passion  slumbered.  But  only  for  a  time.  On  the  voyage 
to  America  in  1842  he  had  as  fellow-traveller  Lord  Mul- 
grave,  an  officer  in  the  Coldstream  Guards,  who  was  on  his 
way  to  rejoin  his  regiment  in  Montreal.  With  him  he 
struck  up  a  marked  friendsliip,  and  it  was  this  officer  who 
reawakened  the  old  passion.  First  a  word  about  this  friend. 
He  is  mentioned  first  in  a  letter  to  Forster: 

"Lord  Mulgrave  (a  handsome  fellow,  by-the-bye,  to 
look  at,  and  nothing  but  a  good  'un  to  go)  laid  a 
wager  with  twenty-five  other  men  last  night,  whose 
berths,  like  his,  are  in  the  fore-cabin,  which  can  only 
be  got  at  by  crossing  the  deck,  that  he  would  reach 
his  cabin  first.  Watches  were  set  by  the  captain's,  and 
they  sallied  forth,  wrapped  up  in  coats  and  storm  caps. 
The  sea  broke  over  the  ship  so  violently,  that  they  were 
five  and  twenty  minutes  holding  on  by  the  hand-rail 
at  the  starboard  paddle-box,  drenched  to  the  skin  by 
every  wave,  and  not  daring  to  go  on  or  come  back, 
lest  they  should  be  washed  overboard !  News !  A  dozen 
murders  in  town  wouldn't  interest  us  half  as  much." 

Arrived  in  America,  Lord  Mulgrave  delayed  rejoining  his 
regiment  as  long  as  possible,  in  order  to  remain  with  the 


AMATEUR  THEATRICALS  269 

novelist,  with  whom  he  travelled  as  far  as  Boston.  Later, 
of  course,  Dickens  visited  Canada,  and  at  Montreal  renewed 
his  acquaintance  with  the  officer.  The  officers  of  the  Guards 
were  organising  some  theatricals  in  aid  of  a  charity,  and 
Mulgrave,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Committee,  suggested 
that  Dickens  should  take  part.  He  agreed  readily  enough, 
and  accepted  the  position  of  stage  manager.  Mulgrave 
played  Mr.  Selborne  in  a  "A  Roland  for  an  Oliver,"  and 
Crupper  in  "Deaf  as  a  Post,"  whilst  Dickens  was  Alfred 
Highfl3^er  in  the  first-named  piece  and  Gallop  in  the  second, 
also  appearing  as  Captain  Granville  in  "Past  Two  O'clock 
in  the  Morning."  Mrs.  Dickens  took  part  also,  and  did 
it  "devilish  well,  too."  How  the  novelist  enjoyed  these  per- 
formances is  revealed  in  the  high-spirited  accounts  of  them 
wliich  he  wrote  to  Forster. 

Mulgrave  remained  one  of  Dickens's  friends,  and  in  after 
years,  in  England,  their  intercourse  was  intimate  and  fre- 
quent, but  our  chief  interest  in  him  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  he  who  reawakened  the  old  passion  for  "play-acting." 
Thenceforth  it  was  strong  in  him,  and  the  reading  of  The 
Chimes  in  1844  served  to  revitalise  it,  so  to  speak.  That 
very  evening  it  was  suggested — by  Jerrold,  no  doubt — that 
some  amateur  theatricals  might  be  organised,  and  in  a  more 
or  less  vague  sort  of  way  it  was  decided  to  do  something 
of  the  kind  when  Dickens  should  return  from  Italy.  Forster 
wrote  to  him  in  Genoa  asking  him  whether  he  still  thought 
they  should  have  the  play.  "Are  we  to  have  that  play.???" 
Dickens  replied:  "Have  I  spoken  of  it,  ever  since  I  came 
home  from  London,  as  a  settled  thing!"  Forster  should 
have  known  his  friend  better!  As  though  Dickens  ever 
dropped  an  idea  that  had  once  taken  possession  of  him! 
Within  three  weeks  of  his  return  a  play  had  been  selected, 
and  the  parts  had  been  cast.  Miss  Kelly's  theatre  was 
taken,  and  there,  on  September  21,  1845,  "Every  Man  in 
his  Humour"  was  played.  This  was  a  "strictly  private" 
show,  done  for  the  sheer  love  of  it,  but  the  success  was 
tremendous,  and  thenceforth,  on  any  excuse,  we  find  Dickens 
organising  theatricals.  In  1847  it  was  for  Leigh  Hunt's 
and  John  Poole's  benefit;  in  the  following  year  it  was  for 
Sheridan  Knowles's  benefit;  in  1850  and  1851  it  was  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art;  and  then 


270  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

came  a  whole  succession  of  performances  "for  love,"  at 
Tavistock  House.  With  these  many  enterprises  it  is  not 
our  province  to  deal.  Mr.  T.  Edgar  Pemberton,^  and  Mr. 
S.  J.  Adair  Fitzgerald"  have  told  the  whole  story.  We  are 
concerned  with  the  people  who  took  part.  With  some  of 
them  we  have  already  made  acquaintance.  There  remain 
several  others,  some  of  them  among  the  best  loved  friends 
that  Dickens  ever  had. 

» "Dickens  and  the  Stage.",  » " Dickens  and  the  Drama.'! 


CHAPTER  L 


JOHN    LEECH 


First  comes  John  Leech.  Not  because  ho  was  the  most 
active  in  the  theatricals,  for  he  was  not ;  nor  only  because 
of  liis  association  with  them.  But  because  he  had  a  fore- 
most place  in  Dickens's  regard — was  one  of  the  innermost 
circle,  in  which  his  was  one  of  the  most  winning  personali- 
ties. Like  Stanfield,  he  was  before  all  else  a  lovable  man: 
modest,  higlily  sensitive,  for  others  as  well  as  for  liimself; 
though  of  a  somewhat  melancholy  temperament,  yet  capa- 
ble of  the  heartiest  mirth;  a  staunch  friend,  incapable  of 
wounding,  incapable  of  making  an  enemy,  ever  glad  to  do 
a  kindness;  he  was,  indeed,  as  true  a  gentleman  as  ever 
breathed.  John  Leech's  art  is  John  Leech  himself — grace- 
ful and  kindly — yet  thoroughly  masculine.  For  him  Dickens 
had  a  very  deep  degard  indeed. 

Forster  certainly  implies  that  Leech  was  introduced  to 
Dickens  in  1845,  in  connection  with  the  theatricals  at  Miss 
Kelly's  theatre,  only  we  know  better,  for  he  had  illustrated 
the  Carol  nearly  two  years  before.  None  the  less,  we  may 
reasonably  assume  that  it  was  Jerrold  who  made  Dickens 
and  Leech  personally  known  to  each  other.  They  were 
members  of  the  "Punch"  staff;  Leech  was  just  building  up 
his  reputation,  and  it  is  probable  that  Jerrold  recommended 
him  as  illustrator  for  the  Carol.  This  supposition  is  con- 
firmed by  the  statement  of  Mr.  W.  A.  Fraser^  that  Leech 
first  met  Dickens  in  1843. 

But  it  is  at  least  probable  that  they  had  met  seven  years 
earlier,  when  Pickwick  was  in  its  infancy,  before  Sam  Weller 
had  come  into  being.  When  Seymour  shot  himself  before 
the  second  number  had  appeared,  and  the  publishers  were 

«  The  Dickensian,  December  1906. 
271 


272  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

looking  for  his  successor,  Leech,  like  his  old  Charterhouse 
schoolfellow  and  life-long  friend,  Thackeray,  apphed  for 
the  honour.  We  know  that  Thackeray  saw  Dickens  per- 
sonally^, and  showed  him  some  specimen  drawings,  wliich 
were  not  considered  good  enough.  We  do  not  know  whether 
Leech  also  apphed  to  Boz  himself,  but  according  to  Joseph 
Grego  in  his  "Pictorial  Pickwickiana,"  Leech  was  asked 
by  the  publishers  to  do  a  specimen  drawing  and  he  ac- 
cordingly submitted  a  pencil  sketch,  tinted  in  colours,  of 
"Tom  Smart  and  the  Chair,"  which  indicated  promise.  His 
art,  at  that  date,  was  perhaps  undeveloped,  and  in  any 
case,  Browne  had  been  before  him,  and  had  been  chosen. 
Leech  was  then  but  nineteen  years  old.  At  the  time  he  was 
probably  just  sorry  that  he  had  failed  to  secure  a  fairly 
remunerative  odd  job;  a  few  months  later,  when  Pickwick 
was  aU  the  rage,  the  disappointment  was  probably  a  sore 
one.  Within  seven  years,  however,  he  was  to  be  on  terms 
of  friendship  with  this  great  writer  who  had  taken  the  town 
by  storm,  and  to  have  secured  a  share  in  his  friend's  fame 
by  illustrating  that  friend's  noblest  work — the  Carol. 

For  this  book  he  prepared  eight  designs,  four  of  which 
were  etched  on  steel,  the  impressions  being  afterwards  col- 
oured by  hand,  the  remaining  four  being  dra^vn  on  wood, 
and  engraved  by  W.  J.  Linton. 

In  the  following  year  Leech  shared  with  Maclise,  Doyle 
and  Stanfield,  in  the  work  of  illustrating  The  Chimes,  for 
which  he  did  five  drawings,  and  gave  us  the  picture  of  Trotty 
Veck,  wliich  must  stand  for  all  time  like  Se^'mour's  Mr. 
Pickwick  and  Phiz's  Sam  Weller.  Dickens  was  delighted 
with  his  friend's  work.  He  had,  indeed,  a  very  high  opinion 
of  Leech's  genius,  and  he  expressed  it  in  an  article  he  wrote 
in  the  "Examiner"  in  1848,  in  appreciation  of  the  artist's 
"The  Rising  Generation."  And  in  a  letter  written  in  1847, 
he  wrote  of  Cruikshank  and  Leech  as  "the  best  caricaturists 
of  any  time,  perhaps." 

In  1845  Leech  contributed  seven  woodcuts  to  The  Cricket 
on  the  Hearth.  For  The  Battle  of  Life,  in  the  follomng 
year,  he  did  three  drawings,  and  in  connection  with  one  of 
these  he  made  a  strange  and  unfortunate  mistake.  This 
is  the  illustration  which  closes  the  second  part  of  the  story, 
where   Michael   Warden   is   introduced   into   the   elopement 


•  r 

\  ■ 

mm 

'i 

^. 

„,-'''' 

"-*'' 

/ 

John  Leech 


JOHN  LEECH  273 

scene.  Says  Forster,  "We  did  not  discover  this  until  too 
late  for  remedy  .  .  .  and  it  is  highly  characteristic  of 
Dickens,  and  of  the  true  regard  he  had  for  tliis  fine  artist, 
that,  knowing  the  pain  he  must  give  in  such  circumstances 
by  objection  or  complaint,  he  preferred  to  pass  it  silently. 
Nobody  made  any  remark  upon  it,  and  there  the  illustration 
still  stands  .  .  ."  And  Forster  quotes  Dickens's  letter  to 
him  on  the  subject: 

"When  I  first  saw  it,  it  was  with  a  horror  and  agony 
not  to  be  expressed.  Of  course,  I  need  not  tell  you, 
my  dear  fellow,  Warden  has  no  business  in  the  elope- 
ment scene.  He  was  never  there !  In  the  first  hot 
sweat  of  this  surprise  and  novelty,  I  was  going  to  im- 
plore the  printing  of  that  sheet  to  be  stopped,  and 
the  figure  taken  out  of  the  block.  But  when  I  thought 
of  the  pain  this  might  give  to  our  kind-hearted  Leech, 
and  that  what  is  such  a  monstrous  enormity  to  me,  as 
never  having  entered  my  brain,  may  not  so  present 
itself  to  others,  I  became  more  composed;  though  the 
fact  is  wonderful  to  me.  .  .  .  Leech  otherwise  is  very 
good,  and  the  illustrations  altogether  are  by  far  the 
best  that  have  ever  been  done  for  any  of  the  Christmas 
books." 

For  The  Haunted  Man,  the  last  of  the  Christmas  books, 
published  in  1848,  Leech  did  five  illustrations.  Thus,  within 
twelve  years  of  his  Pickwick  disappointment,  he  had  been 
associated  witli  Boz  in  every  one  of  the  writer's  famous 
Christmas  books. 

In  1845  Leech  took  part,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the 
theatricals  of  Miss  Kelly's  theatre,  playing  Master  Mathew 
in  "Every  Man  in  his  Humour."  Macready  particularly 
refers  to  his,  Dickens's,  and  Lemon's  acting  as  "very  fine 
for  amateurs."  In  1847  he  took  the  same  part  in  the 
performances  in  aid  of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole.  In 
the  humorous  fragment  that  Dickens  wrote,  purporting 
to  be  an  account  of  the  tour  in  the  north  of  England, 
written  by  Mrs.  Gamp,  Leech  is  referred  to,  though  not  by 
name.  Mrs  Gamp  has  a  conversation  with  the  wig-man, 
Mr.  Wilson: 


274  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"  'Oh,  Mrs.  Gamp,  I  ask  your  pardon' — I  never  see 
such  a  pohte  man,  Mrs.  Harris!  'P'raps,'  he  saj's,  'if 
you're  not  of  the  party  you  don't  know  who  it  was 
that  assisted  you  into  this  carriage!' 

"  'No,  sir,'  I  says,  'I  don't  indeed.' 

"  'Why,  ma'am,'  he  says,  a  wisperin',  'that  was 
George,  ma'am.' 

" 'Wliat  George,  sir.?  I  don't  know  no  George,' 
sa3^s  I. 

"  'The  great  George,  ma'am,'  says  he.  'The  Crook- 
shanks.' 

"  'If  you'll  believe  me,  Mrs.  Harris,  I  turns  m}^  head, 
and  see  the  wery  man  a  making  picturs  of  me  on  liis 
thumb  nail  at  the  winder !  while  another  of  'em — a  tall, 
shm,  melancolly  gent,  with  dark  hair  and  a  bage  voice 
— ^looks  over  his  shoulder,  with  his  head  o'  one  side, 
as  if  he  understood  the  subject,  and  cooly  says,  "I've 
draw'd  her  several  times — in  Punch,"  he  says,  too!  the 
owdacious  wretch!' 

"  '"\Miich  I  never  touches,  Mr,  Wilson,  I  remarks  out 
loud — I  couldn't  have  helped  it,  Mrs.  Harris,  if  you 
had  took  mj^  life  for  it ! — 'which  I  never  touches,  Mr. 
Wilson,  on  account  of  the  lemon !'  " 

The  reference  here,  of  course,  is  to  the  fact  that  Leech 
verj^  often  gained  inspiration  for  his  famous  cartoons  from 
his  friend's  books.  Mrs.  Gamp  also  correctly  records  that 
Leech  had  a  "bage  voice."  He  could  sing  excellently,  and 
his  fine  voice  was  always  in  demand  on  social  occasions, 
though,  we  are  told,  he  generally  sang  melancholy  songs,  his 
favourite  being  one  about  King  Death. 

In  1848  Leech  again  played  Master  Mathew  in  the  per- 
fonnances  for  the  benefit  of  Sheridan  Knowles.  He  also 
played  the  same  part,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Marquis  de 
Lancy  in  "Animal  Magnetism"  at  the  Guild  of  Literature 
and  Art  inaugural  performances,  at  Knebworth,  in  1850, 
but  he  had  no  share  in  the  subsequent  performances  in 
London  and  the  Provinces,  nor  did  he  participate,  except 
as  a  spectator,  in  the  theatricals  at  Tavistock  House. 

But  he  was  ever  a  welcome  guest  at  Dickens's  house,  and 
he  shared  with  Mark  Lemon  the  affection  of  the  children. 


JOHN  LEECH  9,75 

He  was  not  boisterous,  like  Mark  Lemon,  but  he  was  ever 
genial,  and  lie  could  be  merr}^,  whilst  there  were  a  sweetness 
and  tenderness  about  him  that  never  failed  to  win  the  love 
of  little  children.  In  her  book,  "Mj  Father,  as  I  recall 
Him,"  Mamie  Dickens  tells  how  Leech  and  her  father  spe- 
cially learned  the  polka  so  as  to  be  able  to  dance  it  with 
her  and  her  sister  at  a  children's  party.  "None  can 
imagine  our  excitement  and  nervousness,"  he  says,  "when 
the  evening  came  in  which  we  were  to  dance  with  our  pupils. 
Katie,  who  was  a  very  little  girl,  was  to  have  Mr.  Leech, 
who  was  over  six  feet  tall,  for  her  partner,  while  my  father 
was  to  be  mine.  My  heart  beat  so  fast  that  I  could  scarcely 
breathe,  I  was  so  fearful  for  the  success  of  our  exhibition. 
But  my  fears  were  groundless,  and  we  were  greeted  at  the 
finish  of  our  dance  with  hearty  applause,  which  was  more 
than  compensation  for  the  work  which  had  been  expended 
upon  its  learning." 

The  Dickens  and  Leech  families  spent  several  holidays 
together.  During  their  stay  at  Brighton,  in  1849,  they  had 
a  very  unpleasant  experience,  both  the  landlord  and  land- 
lord's daughter  suddenly  going  raving  mad,  and  the  lodgers 
having  to  be  driven  away  to  the  Bedford  Hotel. 

Later  in  the  same  year,  the  two  families  spent  a  holiday 
at  Bonchurch,  LW.  Here  they  had  rollicking  times.  Dur- 
ing their  stay  they  were  visited  by  Forster,  Lemon,  Jerrold, 
Hablot  Browne,  Talfourd,  etc.,  and  they  one  and  all  gave 
themselves  up  to  the  fun.  But  the  merriment  suffered  an 
unfortunate  interruption.  While  bathing  one  day,  Leech 
was  knocked  over  by  a  blow  on  the  forehead  from  a  big 
wave,  causing  congestion  of  the  brain.  A  serious  illness 
followed,  and  eventually  it  was  only  the  exertion  by  Dickens 
of  his  hypnotic  powers  that  saved  his  friend's  hfe. 

"My  plans"  (he  wrote  to  Forster)  "are  all  unsettled 
by  Leech's  illness ;  as  of  course,  I  don't  like  to  leave 
this  place  while  I  can  be  of  service  to  him  and  his  good 
little  wife.  .  .  .  Ever  since  I  wrote  to  you  Leech  has 
been  seriously  worse.  .  .  .  The  night  before  last,  he 
was  in  such  an  alarming  state  of  restlessness  which 
nothing  could  relieve,  that  I  proposed  to  Mrs.  Leech 
to  try  magnetism.     Accordingly,  in  the  middle  of  the 


276  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

night,  I  fell  to ;  and  after  a  very  fatiguing  bout  of 
it,  put  him  to  sleep  for  an  hour  and  thirty-five  minutes. 
A  change  came  on  in  the  sleep,  and  he  is  decidedly 
better.  I  talked  to  the  astounded  little  Mrs.  Leech 
across  him,  when  he  was  asleep,  as  if  he  had  been  a 
truss  of  hay !  Wliat  do  j^ou  think  of  my  setting  up 
in  the  magnetic  line,  with  a  large  brass  plate :  'Terms, 
twenty-five  guineas  per  nap'.?" 

From  that  time,  Leech  steadily  improved,  and  some  days 
later,  he  was  so  much  better  that  Dickens  was  able  to  leave 
him  and  return  to  London. 

In  March  1848  Leech,  Dickens,  Lemon  and  Forster  had 
a  trip  together  to  Salisbury  Plain,  and  in  the  following 
November,  the  first-named  three  had  a  trip  to  Norwich, 
visiting  also  Yarmouth,  Lowestoft,  Blundeston,  etc.  In 
1851  Dickens  and  Leech,  with  the  Hon.  Spenser  Lyttleton, 
made  a  short  bachelor  excursion  to  Paris,  and  had  a  very 
enjoyable  time.  Again,  in  1854,  Leech  and  his  wife  visited 
the  Dickenses  at  Boulogne. 

Finally,  it  should  be  mentioned  that  in  The  DicJcensian 
for  December  1913,  there  was  reproduced  a  pencil  sketch 
portrait  of  Dickens  by  Leech;  an  unfinished  drawing,  but 
reveahng  all  the  artist's  charm  and  skill.  The  date  of  this 
drawing  is  not  known. 


CHAPTER  LI 


UNCLE  MARK' 


Much  more  active  in  the  theatricals  was  Mark  Lemon. 
As  in  the  case  of  Leech,  Forstcr  suggests  that  he  was  in- 
troduced to  Dickens  by  Jerrold  in  connection  with  the  per- 
formances at  Miss  Kelly's  theatre.  The  suggestion  is 
obviously  wrong  so  far  as  it  concerns  Leech,  but  it  is 
probably  accurate  in  regard  to  Lemon,  For  many  succeed- 
ing years  he  and  the  novelist  were  the  best  of  friends.  I  do 
not  think  that  there  was  ever  that  finer  friendship  that 
existed  with  some  others,  but  they  liked  each  other  well, 
and  Lemon's  joviality  and  heartiness  appealed  to  Dickens. 
At  Twelfth  Night  parties,  at  the  dinners  and  dances  which 
followed  the  theatrical  performances  at  Tavistock  House, 
he  was  ever  in  great  demand,  rivaling  Dickens  himself  as  a 
provoker  of  merriment.  What  wonder  that  the  children 
should  love  "Uncle  Mark".?  This  giant — who  could  play 
Falstaff  without  padding — this  hearty,  rollicking  Lord  of 
Misrule,  was  a  prime  favourite  wdth  them,  and  the  fact  must 
have  strengthened  the  bond  of  friendship  with  their  father. 
"My  sister  and  I,"  writes  Mrs.  Pcrugini  to  me,  "were  greatly 
attached,  when  we  were  little  girls,  to  the  two  little  daughters 
of  Mr.  Mark  Lemon — Lally  and  Betty — and  he  and  his 
wife  were  extraordinarily  kind  to  us,  having  us  constantly 
at  their  house.  Our  affection  for  them  in  return  was  so 
strong  that  they  were  always  'Uncle  Mark,'  and  'Aunt 
Nelly,'  to  us,  although  there  was  no  tie  of  blood  between  us." 

From  1845  he  was  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  all  the 
amateur  theatricals,  and  probably  Dickens  was  his  only 
superior  as  an  actor  in  the  company.  Macrcady  says  that 
"the  farce  between  Dickens  and  M,  Lemon  was  very  broad 
and  laughable,"  whilst  of  his  performance  in  the  "Elder 
Brother,"  three  months  later,  the  great  tragedian  says,  "the 
best-filled  part  in  the  play  was  Miramount  by  Lemon." 
277 


278  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Dickens,  it  may  be  added,  described  him  as  "so  surprisingly 
sensible  and  trustworthy  on  the  stage." 

In  April  1848  Lemon  was  present  at  the  Dombey  dinner, 
and  in  that  same  year  he  dedicated  one  of  his  books  to 
Dickens's  two  little  girls.  Dickens  acknowledged  the  com- 
pliment in  the  follo^nng  terms:  "My  dear  Mark,  I  assure 
you,  most  unaffectedly  and  cordially,  that  the  dedication 
of  that  book  to  Mary  and  Kate  (not  Catherine)  will  be  a 
real  delight  to  me,  and  to  all  of  us.  I  know  well  that  you 
propose  it  in  affectionate  regard,  and  value  it  and  esteem 
it  therefore,  in  a  way  not  easy  of  expression."  Mrs. 
Perugini  very  kindly  informs  me  that  the  book  thus  referred 
to  was  "The  Enchanted  Doll." 

In  this  same  year  came  the  performances  in  aid  of 
Sheridan  Knowles  and  John  Poole,  Lemon  playing  Brain- 
worm  in  "Every  Man  in  his  Humour,"  and  Falstaff  in  "The 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor."  In  1848  Lemon,  with  Dickens's 
heart}^  approval  and  assistance,  dramatised  The  Haunted 
Man.  His  version — a  very  good  one — was  produced  at  the 
Adclphi.  In  1863  it  was  revived,  J.  L.  Toole  then  achieving 
a  success  as  Tetterby.  Needless  to  say,  Lemon  was  present 
at  The  Haunted  Man  dinner. 

In  1850  at  the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art  inaugural 
performances  at  Knebworth  Mrs.  Lemon  played  the  part  of 
Tib,  owing  to  Mrs,  Dickens,  who  had  previously  sustained 
the  part,  having  sprained  her  ankle.  To  this  accident, 
allusion  was  made  in  the  epilogue,  which  was  written  in  the 
form  of  a  dialogue  between  old  Knowell  and  Wellbred.  Mrs. 
Dickens  is  alluded  to,  and  Knowell  says: 

"A  word  on  her  sad  accident:  but,  quite 
Impromptu,  not  intended  for    to-night. 
Oh,  may  she  soon  recover  from  her  sprain, 
To  tread  with  us,  her  friends,  these  boards  again!" 

To  which  Wellbred  replies: 

"That  fall  sank  all  our  spirits;  but  in  need, 
'Tis  said,  a  friend  is  found  a  friend  indeed. 
Successful  friendship  has  one's  cares  allayed." 

Whereupon  Knowell  interrupts  with: 

"Ay,  and  the  case  relieved  by  Lemon — aid." 


"UNCLE  MARK"  279 

Following  these  performances  at  Knebworth  came  the 
series  in  London  and  the  provinces.  As  we  have  seen, 
Dickens  had  to  ask  to  be  absolved  from  his  promise  to 
write  a  farce,  and  instead  a  farce  by  Lemon  was  chosen, 
"to  which  Dickens  soon  contributed  so  manj'  jokes  and  so 
much  Gampish  and  other  fun  of  his  own,  that  it  came  to  be 
in  effect  a  joint  piece  of  authorship." 

It  was  "Mr.  Nightingale's  Diary,"  which  is  now  published 
in  the  Miscellaneous  Papers  as  the  joint  work  of  Dickens  and 
Lemon.  Dickens  played  half  a  dozen  characters,  and  Lemon 
took  the  parts  of  Slap,  Mr.  Tickle  and  a  Virtuous  Young 
Person.  On  the  occasion  of  the  Devonshire  House  per- 
formance. Lemon  was  stage  manager,  Dickens  being  desig- 
nated general  manager. 

In  1854  came  the  first  of  the  children's  theatricals  at 
Tavistock  House.  It  is  delightful  to  read  how  Dickens  and 
Lemon,  and  Wilkie  Collins,  gave  themselves  up  to  the  en- 
tertainment of  the  youngsters  on  these  occasions,  and  the 
memory  of  these  theatricals,  when  the  play  was  followed  by 

high  revels,  must  be  very  precious  to  "Mr.  H. "^  and 

"Miss  Kate,"  who  are  the  only  survivors  of  those  happy 
parties,  of  wliich  Forster  writes: 

"These  began  with  the  first  Twelfth  Night  at 
Tavistock  House,  and  were  renewed  until  the  principal 
actors  ceased  to  be  children.  The  best  of  the  per- 
formances were  'Tom  Thumb'  and  'Fortunio,'  in  1854 
and  1855,  Dickens  noAV  joining  first  in  the  revel,  and 
Mr.  Mark  Lemon  bringing  into  it  his  own  clever  chil- 
dren and  a  very  mountain  of  child-pleasing  fun  in 
himself.  Dickens  had  become  very  intimate  with  him, 
and  his  merry,  genial  ways  had  given  him  unbounded 
popularity  with  the  young  'uns,'  who  had  no  such 
favourite  as  'Uncle  Mark!'  In  Fielding's  burlesque  he 
was  the  giantess  Glumdalca,  and  Dickens  was  the  ghost 
of  Gaffer  Thumb ;  the  names  by  which  they  respectively 
appeared  being  the  Infant  Phenomenon  and  the 
Modern  Gar  rick." 
In  the  summer  of  1855,  Dickens  "threw  open  to  many 
friends  his  Tavistock  House  Theatre,  having  secured  for 
» Now  Mr.  Henry  F.  Dickens,  E.G.   He  was  then  less  than  five  years  old. 


280  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

its  lessee  and  manager,  Mr.  Crummies,  for  its  poet,  Mr. 
Wilkie  Collins,  in  an  entirely  new  and  original  domestic 
melodrama,  and  for  its  scene  painter,  Mr.  Stanfield,  R.A." 
"The  Lighthouse"  was  produced,  its  actors  being  Dickens, 
the  author  of  the  play,  Mr.  Lemon,  and  Mr.  Egg,  and  the 
manager's  sister-in-law  and  eldest  daughter.  Lemon  played 
Jacob  Dale,  the  third  Light-keeper.  Two  years  later  "The 
Frozen  Deep"  was  produced  at  Tavistock  House,  Lemon 
playing  Lieutenant  Crayford.  It  was  followed  by  "Animal 
Magnetism"  in  which  he  appeared  as  PedriUo. 

As  far  as  published  records  go,  it  might  well  be  imagined 
that  Dickens's  associations  with  Lemon  were  almost  ex- 
clusively of  a  dramatic  character,  but  this  was  not  the  case. 
For  several  years  they  were  on  terms  of  intimacy,  and  they 
and  their  families  frequently  exchanged  visits,  their  children, 
as  may  be  gathered  from  Mrs.  Perugini's  letter  wliich  I 
have  quoted,  forming  a  strong  bond  between  them.  Dickens, 
in  fact,  took  a  strong  liking  to  this  big,  hearty,  jovial, 
"mountain  of  child-pleasing  fun,"  this  "most  true-hearted 
and  affectionate  fellow,"  as  he  described  him.  The  death 
of  the  novelist's  infant  daughter,  Dora,  in  April  1851,  gave 
Lemon  an  opportunity  of  showing  that  his  friendship  was 
of  value.  Dickens  was  in  the  chair  at  the  General  Theatrical 
Fund,  and  half  an  hour  before  he  was  to  deliver  his  speech 
Forster  was  summoned  out  of  the  room  to  learn  that  his 
friend's  child  was  dead.  He  decided  to  allow  Dickens  to 
make  his  speech  before  breaking  the  sad  news  to  him. 

"As  he  went  on  to  speak  of  actors  having  come  from 
scenes  of  sickness,  of  suffering,  aye,  even  of  death  itself, 
to  play  their  parts  before  us,  my  part  was  very  diffi- 
cult, *Yet  how  often  is  it  with  all  of  us !'  he  proceeded 
to  say,  and  I  remember  to  this  hour  with  what  anguish 
I  listened  to  words  that  had  for  myself  alone,  in  all 
the  crowded  room,  their  full  significance,  'how  often 
is  it  with  all  of  us,  that  in  our  several  spheres  we  have 
to  do  violence  to  our  feelings  and  to  hide  our  hearts 
in  carrying  on  this  fight  of  life,  if  we  would  bravely 
discharge  in  it  our  duties  and  responsibilities.'  In 
the  disclosure  that  followed  when  he  left  the  chair,  Mr. 
Lemon,  who  was  present,  assisted  me,  and  I  left  this 


"UNCLE  MARK"  281 

good  friend  with  him  next  day,  when  I  went  myself 
to  Malvern  and  brought  back  Mrs.  Dickens  and  her 
sister." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Lemon  sat  with  Dickens  all  that 
night.  Four  years  later,  when  he  was  sorrowing  in  his  turn, 
his  friend  recalled  that  night: 

"My  dear  Mark, 

"I  will  call  for  you  at  two,  and  go  with  you  to 
Highgate,  by  all  means. 

"Leech  and  I  called  on  Tuesday  evening  and  left  our 
loves.  I  have  not  written  to  you  since,  because  I 
thought  it  best  to  leave  you  quiet  for  a  day.  I  have 
no  need  to  tell  you,  my  dear  fellow,  that  my  thoughts 
have  been  constantly  with  you,  and  that  I  have  not 
forgotten  (and  never  shall  forget)  who  sat  up  with 
me  one  night  when  a  little  place  in  my  home  was  left 
empty. 

"It  is  hard  to  lose  any  child,  but  there  are  many 
blessed  sources  of  consolation  in  the  loss  of  a  baby." 

In  1848  Dickens  and  Lemon,  with  Leech  and  Forster, 
had  a  pleasant  excursion  together,  ".  .  .  Obtaining  horses 
from  Salisbury,"  says  Forster,  "we  passed  the  whole  of  a 
March  day  in  riding  over  every  part  of  the  plain;  visit- 
ing Stonehenge,  and  exploring  Hazlitt's  *hut'  at  Win- 
terslow  .  .  . ;  all  together  with  so  brilliant  a  success"  that 
in  the  following  November  Dickens  proposed  to  "repeat  the 
Salisbury  Plain  idea,  in  a  new  direction  in  mid-winter,  to 
wit,  Blackgang  Chine  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  with  dark  winter 
cKfFs  and  roaring  oceans."  But  when  winter  came,  it  was 
decided  that  it  would  be  better  to  "make  an  outburst  to 
some  old  cathedral  city  we  don't  know."  Accordingly  Nor- 
wich was  selected.  During  this  excursion,  Dickens  saw 
Yarmouth  and  Blunderstone  for  the  first  time.  In  the 
summer  of  1849,  the  Lemons  spent  happy  days  with  the 
Whites  and  the  Dickenses  and  the  Leeches  at  Bonchurch. 
Great  was  the  fun,  one  of  the  most  amusing  incidents  being 
a  race  between  "Uncle  Porpoise"  and  Dr.  Lankester,  who 
also  was  abnormally  stout,  Macready  acting  as  judge. 


282  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

In  1858  came  a  most  unfortunate  estrangement,  and 
though  the  friendship  was  eventually  renewed,  the  old  happy 
days  had  gone  for  ever.  In  the  discussions  which  preceded 
the  separation  of  Dickens  and  his  wife,  Lemon  acted  for 
Mrs.  Dickens,  and  Forster  for  the  novelist.  A  month  or 
two  later,  Dickens  published  the  famous  letter  in  wliich  he 
gave  the  lie  direct  to  various  statements  that  had  become 
the  subject  of  common  gossip.  Many  of  his  friends  tried 
to  dissuade  him  from  his  purpose,  and  there  are  no  two 
opinions  to-day  as  to  the  unwisdom  of  the  course  he  took. 
But  he  persisted,  and  the  letter  appeared  in  Household 
Words.  Not  satisfied  with  this  he  endeavoured  to  secure 
the  publication  in  "Punch."  Naturally  Lemon  could  not 
listen  to  such  a  proposition,  and  Dickens  took  offence,  with 
the  result  that  for  nearly  ton  years  they  were  as  strangers. 
It  was  Clarkson  Stanfield  who  brought  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion, as  we  have  seen,  and  over  "Stanny's"  open  grave,  the 
right  hand  of  friendsliip  was  once  more  held  out  and 
grasped. 

Both  men  had  but  three  years  left  to  them,  Dickens  fol- 
lowing Lemon  to  the  Great  Beyond  within  a  month. 


CHAPTER  LII 


AUGUSTUS   EGG 


It  is  strange  to  find  so  little  mention  of  Augustus  Egg 
in  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens.  His  name  never  occurs  ex- 
cept to  record  a  bare  fact — that  he  took  part  in  some 
theatrical  performance,  or  visited  Dickens  at  Broadstairs, 
for  instances — or  when  he  is  mentioned  in  a  quoted  letter 
of  the  novelist's.  It  is  all  the  more  curious  because  in  the 
case  of  Egg,  at  any  rate,  Forster  cannot  be  accused  of 
prejudice  or  jealousy.  Mr.  Renton,  in  fact,  declares  that 
Egg  has  "no  inconsiderable  claim  to  be  included  amongst 
those  friends  of  Forster's  who  so  largely  contributed  to 
make  his  life  the  happy,  pleasant  thing  it,  in  the  main,  really 
was."  And  with  Dickens  Egg  was  a  very  dear  friend. 
That  is  quite  certain;  every  member  of  the  Dickens  circle 
who  has  left  any  record  at  aU  tells  us  so.  The  fact  seems 
to  be  that  Egg  was  not  a  man  of  strong  personality,  cap- 
able artist  though  he  was.  Moreover,  he  suffered  from  very 
poor  health.  Dickens  writes  of  him  as  a  "dear  gentle  little 
fellow,"  and,  again,  as  a  "dear  fcUow  .  .  .  always  sweet- 
tempered,  humorous,  conscientious,  thorougldy  good,  and 
thoroughly  beloved."  Many  others  bear  similar  testimony. 
Ho  was  just  a  "dear  gentle  little  fellow,"  simple-hearted, 
lovable,  but  with  no  striking  individuality  at  all.  This  prob- 
ably explains  why  no  biography  of  him  exists.  It  is  a  pity 
from  the  Dickensian's  point  of  view,  for  the  novelist  most 
certainly  had  a  very  peculiar  regard  for  him. 

It  was  in  1847  that  they  first  met,  Egg  being  introduced 
— probably  by  Frank  Stone — in  order  that  he  might  help 
In  the  theatricals  on  behalf  of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole. 
At  once  a  strong  friendship  was  formed.  That  is  shown  by 
Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke's  recollection  that  during  the  provincial 
283 


284  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

tour  Dickens  "had  a  way  of  suddenl}'  calling  out  to  Egg 
during  dinner  or  supper,  'Augustus !',  and  when  he  looked 
up,  would  exclaim  with  a  half-serious,  half-playful  affec- 
tionatencss,  'God  bless  you,  Augustus  1'  "  The  Editors  of 
the  novehst's  Letters  say :  "We  much  regret  ha^^Lng  been 
unable  to  procure  any  letters  addressed  to  Mr.  Egg.  His  in- 
timacy with  Charles  Dickens  began  first  in  the  plays  of 
this  3'ear  (1847)  ;  but  Mr.  Egg  became  almost  immediately 
one  of  the  friends  for  whom  he  had  an  especial  affection, 
and  was  a  regular  visitor  at  his  house,  and  at  his  seaside 
places  of  resoi't  for  many  years  after  this  date." 

In  the  performances  of  1847,  and  again  in  1848,  Egg 
played  Master  Stephen  in  "Every  Man  in  His  Humour," 
and  John  Brown  in  "Love,  Law,  and  Physic."  In  this  same 
year  we  find  him  visiting  Dickens  at  Broads tairs,  and  in 
1849  they  were  together  at  Bonchurch.  In  1851  in  the 
private  performances  at  Knebworth  of  "Every  Man  in  His 
Humour,"  Egg  took  the  part  of  Oliver  Cobb,  wliilst  in 
"Animal  Magnetism"  he  was  Jeffcry. 

In  the  following  year  there  were  the  Guild  performances 
of  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem"  and  "Mr.  Nightingale's  Diary." 
I  have  never  seen  it  remarked  that  for  these  productions  Egg 
designed  the  dresses.  The  play-bill  certainly  states:  "The 
Costumes  (with  the  exception  of  the  Ladies'  Dresses  and  the 
dresses  of  the  Farce,  which  are  b}'^  Messrs.  Nathan  of  Tich- 
borne  Street)  made  by  Mr.  Barnett,  of  the  Theatre  Royal, 
Haymarket.  Under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Augustus 
Egg,  A.R.A."  But  the  following  extract  from  one  of 
Dickens's  letters  to  Lytton  makes  it  clear  that  Egg  not 
merel}'  superintended  the  making  of  the  dresses,  but  actually 
designed  them:  "The  dresses  are  a  perfect  blaze  of  colour, 
and  there  is  not  a  pocket-flap  or  a  scrap  of  lace  that  has 
not  been  made  according  to  Egg's  drawings  to  the  quarter 
of  an  inch." 

In  Lytton's  comedy  Egg  played  Mr.  David  Fallen,  and 
in  the  farce  he  was  Tip  and  Christopher,  whilst  during  the 
provincial  tour  he  played  Mr.  Fennel  in  "Used  Up."  Of 
this  tour  he  has  left  us  a  very  interesting  souvenir,  in  the 
shape  of  an  admirable  painting  of  Dickens  as  Sir  Charles 
Coldstream  in  the  last-named  play.  To  complete  the  record 
of  Egg's  connection  with  the  theatricals :  he  took  part  in 


AUGUSTUS  EGG  285 

the  production  of  both  "The  Lighthouse"  and  "The  Frozen 
Deep"  at  Tavistock  House. 

Continually  during  these  years  Egg  was  a  favourite 
holiday  companion  of  Dickens's.  In  1853  the}',  with  Wilkie 
Collins,  had  a  memorable  trip  to  Switzerland  and  Italy,  and 
man}'  a  delightful  adventure  did  they  experience.  Writing 
to  Miss  Hogarth  from  Milan,  Dickens  says :  "We  con- 
tinue to  get  on  very  well  together.  We  really  do  admirably. 
.  .  .  Egg  is  an  excellent  fellow,  too,  and  full  of  good  quali- 
ties ;  I  am  sure  a  generous  and  staunch  man  at  heart  and 
a  good  and  honourable  nature."  Forster  makes  no  mention 
of  him  after  this,  but  the  friendship  remained  unchanged 
right  up  to  Egg's  death  in  1863,  when  we  find  Dickens  writ- 
ing to  Wilkie  Collins : 

"Ah,  poor  Egg!  I  know  what  you  would  think  and 
feel  about  it.  .  .  .  What  a  large  piece  of  a  good  many 
years  he  seems  to  have  taken  with  him !  How  often 
have  I  thought,  since  the  news  of  his  death  came,  of 
his  putting  his  part  in  the  saucepan  (with  the  cover 
on)  when  we  rehearsed  'The  Lighthouse';  of  his  falling 
out  of  the  hammock  when  we  rehearsed  'The  Frozen 
Deep' ;  of  his  learning  Italian  numbers  when  he  ate  the 
garlic  in  the  carriage;  of  the  thousands  (I  was  going 
to  say)  of  dark  mornings  when  I  apostrophised  him  as 
'Kernel';  of  his  losing  my  invaluable  knife  in  that 
beastly  stage-coach;  of  his  posting  up  that  mysterious 
book^  every  night !  ...  In  my  memory  of  the  dear 
gentle  little  fellow,  he  will  be  (as  since  those  days  he 
always  has  been)  eternally  posting  up  that  book  at 
the  large  table  in  the  middle  of  our  Venice  sitting-room, 
incidentally  asking  the  name  of  an  hotel  three  weeks 
back !  And  his  pretty  house  is  to  be  laid  waste  and 
sold.  If  there  be  a  sale  on  the  spot  I  shall  try  to 
buy  sometliing  in  loving  remembrance  of  him,  good 
dear  little  fellow.  Think  what  a  great  'Frozen  Deep' 
lay  close  under  those  boards  we  acted  on !  My  brother 
Alfred,  Luard,  Arthur,  Albert,  Austin,  Egg.  Even 
among  the  audience  Prince  Albert  and  poor  Stone!    *I 

» His  travelling  journal. 


286  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

heard  the' — I  forget  what  it  was  I  used  to  say — 'come 
up  from  the  great  deep' ;  and  it  rings  in  my  ears  now, 
like  a  sort  of  mad  prophecy. 

"However,  this  won't  do.     We  must  close  up  our 
ranks  and  march  on." 

Of  more  intimate  records  of  this  friendship  we  have  none 
at  all.  But  Egg  was  one  of  the  inner  Dickens  circle  for 
sixteen  j^ears;  the  two  men  were  together  at  every  oppor- 
tunity, and  in  the  novelist's  home  no  one  was  more  welcome 
than  Egg,  whilst  W.  P.  Frith  tells  us  that  Dickens  was  often 
at  Egg's  house.  Ivy  Cottage,  Black  Lion  Lane  (now  Queen's 
Road),  Bayswater. 

As  far  as  I  knew.  Egg  never  tried  his  hand  at  scenes  or 
characters  from  liis  friend's  books. 


CHAPTER  LIII 

MRS.   COWDEN   CLABKE 

Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke,  the  famous  compiler  of  the 
Shakespeare  Concordance,  was  especially  prominent  in 
many  of  the  theatricals.  She  was  introduced  to  Dickens 
by  Leigh  Hunt  at  a  party  at  the  Tagarts'  in  1848.  "At 
once,"  she  says,  "with  his  own  inexpressible  charm  of  grace- 
ful ease  and  animation,  Charles  Dickens  fell  into  delightful 
chat  and  riveted  for  ever  the  chain  of  fascination  that  his 
mere  distant  image  and  enchanting  writings  had  cast  about 
M.  C.  C,  drawing  her  towards  him  with  a  perfect  spell  of 
prepossession.  The  prepossession  was  confirmed  into  affec- 
tionate admiration  and  affection  that  lasted  faithfully  strong 
throughout  the  happy  friendship  that  ensued  and  was  not 
even  destroyed  by  death." 

Twenty-two  years  later  she  read  in  an  Italian  paper 
"Carlo  Dickens  e  morto,"  and,  she  says,  "the  sun  seemed 
suddenly  blotted  out  as  I  looked  upon  the  fatal  line." 
Through  all  those  years,  "genial,  kind,  most  sympathetic 
and  fascinating"  had  been  his  companionship,  and  "very 
precious  to  me  was  his  friendship." 

Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke  was,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  sincere 
and  loyal  of  Dickens's  friends.  But  their  association  was 
confined  mainly  to  the  earlier  theatrical  performances  in 
which  she  had  a  prominent  share. 

At  that  first  meeting  at  the  Tagarts'  house,  Dickens  re- 
ferred to  her  performance  of  Mrs.  Malaprop  in  some  recent 
theatricals,  and  she  said  that  she  understood  he  was  organ- 
ising an  amateur  company  to  play  "The  Merry  Wives  of 
Windsor,"  and  that  she  would  be  delighted  to  play  Dame 
Quickly.  Dickens  did  not  take  the  proposal  seriously,  but 
she  was  very  keen  on  playing  the  part,  and  so  wrote  to  him 
repeating  the  proposal.  She  received  the  following  reply: 
287 


288  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"I  did  not  understand,  when  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
conversing  with  you  the  other  evening,  that  you  had 
really  considered  the  subject,  and  desired  to  play.  But 
I  am  very  glad  to  understand  it  now;  and  I  am  sure 
there  Avill  be  a  universal  sense  among  us  of  the  grace 
and  appropriateness  of  such  a  proceeding.  .  .  .  Will 
3^ou  .  .  .  receive  this  as  a  solemn  'call'  to  rehearsal 
of  'The  Merry  Wives'  at  Miss  Kelly's  theatre,  to- 
morrow (Saturday)  week,  at  seven  in  the  evening.? 

"And  will  you  let  me  suggest  another  point  for  your 
consideration.''  On  the  night  when  'The  Merry  Wives' 
will  not  be  played,  and  when  'Every  Man  in  his 
Humour'  will  be,  Kenny's  farce  of  'Love,  Law,  and 
Physic'  will  be  acted.  In  that  farce  there  is  a  very 
good  character  (one  Mrs.  Hilary,  which  I  have  seen 
Mrs.  Orger,  I  think,  act  to  admiration).  ...  If  you 
find  yourself  quite  comfortable  and  at  ease  among  us 
in  Mrs.  Quickly,  would  you  hke  to  take  this  other 
part.?" 

She  accepted  the  offer,  and  she  also  played  Tib  in  Ben 
Jonson's  comedy.  Mrs.  Clarke's  enthusiastic  eulogy  of 
Dickens  as  a  manager  has  often  been  quoted  and  there  is 
no  need  to  repeat  it  here.  But  she  wrote  of  the  tour  even 
more  enthusiastically,  if  that  were  possible: 

"What  enchanting  journeys  those  were!  The  com- 
ing on  to  the  platform  at  the  station  where  Charles 
Dickens's  alert  form  and  beaming  look  met  one  with 
pleasurable  greeting;  the  interest  and  polite  attention 
of  the  officials ;  the  being  always  seated  with  my  sister 
Emma  in  the  same  carriage  occupied  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Charles  Dickens  and  Mark  Lemon;  the  delightful 
gaiety  and  sprightliness  of  our  manager's  talk;  the 
endless  stories  he  told  us;  the  games  he  mentioned  and 
explained  how  they  were  played;  the  bright  amenity 
of  his  manner  at  various  stations ;  .  .  .  his  indefati- 
gable vivacity,  cheeriness,  and  good  humour  from  morn- 
ing till  night — all  were  delightful." 

"No  man,"  she  says,  "could  better  make  a  'part}'  of 
pleasure'    tinily    pleasant    and    worthy    of    its    name.   .  .  . 


MRS.  COWDEN  CLARKE  289 

Charles  Dickens — beaming  in  look,  alert  in  manner,  radiant 
with  good  humour,  genial  voiced,  the  very  soul  of  enjoy- 
ment, fun,  good  taste,  and  good  spirits,  admirable  in  or- 
ganising details  and  suggesting  novelty  of  entertainment — ■ 
of  all  beings  the  very  man  for  a  holiday  season;  and  in  a 
singularly  exceptional  holiday  season  was  it  my  fortunate 
hap  to  pass  every  hour  that  I  spent  in  his  society." 

As  a  souvenir  of  this  tour  Mrs.  Clarke  sent  to  Dickens 
a  handsome  blotting  case  which  she  had  made.  It  was 
bound  in  green  watered  silk.  In  the  corners  were  the  names 
of  the  parts  he  had  played;  in  the  centre  on  the  front  was 
a  leaf  of  hcartease  and  forget-me-nots,  surrounding  the 
initials  "Y.  G."^  In  the  centre  on  the  other  side  was  a 
group  of  rosebuds  worked  in  gloss  silks,  and  natural  colours. 

He  received  other  little  tokens  of  admiration  from  her: 

"It  is  almost  an  impertinence  to  tell  you  how  de- 
lightful 3' our  flowers  were  to  me ;  for  you  who  thought 
of  that  delicately-timed  token  of  sympathy  and  re- 
membrance, must  know   it  very  well   already. 

"I  do  assure  you  that  I  have  hardly  ever  received 
anything  with  so  much  pleasure  in  all  my  life.  They 
are  not  faded  yet — are  on  my  table  here — but  never 
can  fade  out  of  my  remembrance.  .  .  . 

"Ever  faithfully  and  gratefully  your  Friend." 

In  1853  Dickens  gave  her  a  copy  of  Bleak  House,  re- 
questing that  she  would  give  the  book  a  place  on  her  shelves 
and  in  her  heart — "where  you  may  always  believe  me."  It 
should  also  be  said  that  he  invited  her  to  take  part  in  some 
of  the  later  theatricals,  but  she  was  unable  to  do  so. 

In  1859  Mrs.  Clarke  wrote  him  in  praise  of  A  Tale  of 
Two  Cities,  which  was  then  appearing  in  serial  form,  and 
here  is  his  warm  acknowledgment: 

"I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  pleasure  I  have  derived 
from  the  receipt  of  your  earnest  letter.  Do  not  sup- 
pose it  possible  that  such  praise  can  be  *less  than 
nothing'  to  your  old  manager.     It  is  more  than  all 

»  "Young  Gas" — a  name  he  had  bestowed  upon  himself. 


g90  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

else.  Here  in  my  little  country  house  on  the  summit 
of  the  hill  where  Falstaff  did  the  robbery,  your  words 
have  come  to  me  in  the  most  appropriate  and  delight- 
ful manner.  When  the  story  can  be  read  all  at  once, 
and  my  meaning  can  be  better  seen,  I  will  send  it  to 
you  .  .  .  and  it  will  be  a  hearty  gratification  to  tliink 
that  you  and  your  good  husband  are  reading  it  to- 
gether. For  you  must  both  take  notice,  please,  that  I 
have  a  reminder  of  you  always  before  me.  On  my  desk, 
here,  stand  two  green  leaves  which  I  every  morning 
station  in  their  ever-green  place  at  my  elbow.  The 
leaves  on  the  oak-trees  outside  the  window  are  less 
constant  than  them,  for  they  are  with  me  through  the 
four  seasons. 

The  "two  green  leaves"  referred  to  a  porcelain  paper- 
weight, another  gift  from  this  enthusiastic  admirer.  It  had 
tAVo  green  leaves  enamelled  on  it,  on  either  side  of  the  initials 
"C.  D." 

Later  Mrs.  Clarke  and  her  husband  left  England  and 
settled  in  Italy,  and  on  their  departure  Dickens  wrote,  *'I 
shall  never  hear  of  you  or  think  of  you  without- true  interest 
and  pleasure."  As  we  have  seen,  it  was  in  Italy  that  Mrs. 
Clarke  read  "Carlo  Dickens  e  morto."  "Often  since  then," 
she  says,  "the  sudden  blur  of  the  sunshine  comes  over  the 
fair  face  of  Genoa,  sea,  sky,  fortressed  hills,  which  he  de- 
scribed as  'one  of  the  most  fascinating  prospects  in  the 
world' — when  I  look  upon  it  and  think  that  his  loving  eyes 
can  never  again  behold  a  scene  he  loved  so  well;  but  then 
returns  the  bright  clear  light  that  illumined  his  own  nature, 
making  him  so  full  of  faith  in  loveliness  and  kindness  as 
to  shed  a  perpetually  beaming  genial  effect  upon  those  who 
knew  him — and  one's  spirit  revives  in  another  and  a  better 
hope." 


CHAPTER  LIV 


THE  DUKE  OF   DEVONSHIEE 


The  (seventh)  Duke  of  Devonshire  is  quite  appropriately 
"placed"  here.  He  never  took  part  in  any  of  the  theatrical 
performances,  of  course,  but  his  friendship  with  Dickens 
arose  out  of  the  Guild  performances  in  1851  in  which  he 
took  a  great  interest,  and  for  which  he  loaned  his  house 
in  Piccadilly.  He  was  never  on  intimate  terms  with  the 
novelist,  but  he  showed  Dickens  many  kindnesses,  and  there 
was  a  great  cordiality.  The  offer  of  Devonshire  House  was 
not  spontaneous,  but  came  in  response  to  a  direct  appeal 
from  Dickens.  The  response,  however,  was  prompt  and 
hearty,  and  the  Duke  in  liis  princely  ways  (says  Forster) 
discharged  all  the  expenses  attending  the  performances.  A 
movable  theatre  was  built  and  set  up  in  the  great  drawing- 
room,  and  the  library  was  turned  into   a  green-room. 

Thenceforth  great  cordiality  existed  between  Dickens  and 
the  Duke,  and  for  some  years  they  corresponded  pretty 
frequently.  Some  of  the  novelist's  letters  are  preserved  and 
they  are  very  hearty.  From  Boulogne  in  July  1856,  for 
instance,  Dickens  wrote  a  long  letter,  acknowledging  one 
from  the  Duke  which  had  been  received  with  "uncommon 
pleasure,"  and  making  interesting  reference  to  the  book 
then  in  hand. 

*'I  am  so  glad  you  like  Flora.  It  came  into  my  head 
one  day  that  we  have  all  had  our  Floras,  and  that  it 
was  a  half -serious,  half-ridiculous  truth  which  had 
never  been  told.  It  is  a  wonderful  gratification  to  me 
to  find  that  everybody  knows  her.  Indeed,  some  people 
seem  to  think  I  have  done  them  a  personal  injury,  and 
that  their  individual  Floras  (God  knows  where  they  are, 
or  who !)  are  each  and  all  Little  Dorrits !" 
291 


292  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"We  were  ail  grievously  disappointed  that  you  were  ill 
when  we  played  Mr.  Collins's  'Lighthouse'  at  my  house," 
the  letter  proceeds.  "If  you  had  been  well,  I  should  have 
waited  upon  you  with  my  humble  petition  that  you  would 
come  and  see  it;  and  if  you  had  come  I  tliink  you  would 
have  cried,  wliich  would  have  charmed  me.  I  hope  to  pro- 
duce another  play  at  home  next  Christmas,  and  if  I  can 
only  persuade  you  to  see  it  from  a  special  arm-chair  and 
can  only  make  you  wretched,  my  satisfaction  will  be  intense." 

In  the  following  December  he  wrote: 

"The  moment  the  first  bOl  is  printed  for  the  first 
night  of  the  new  play  I  told  you  of,  I  send  it  to  you, 
in  the  hope  that  j'ou  will  grace  it  with  your  presence. 
There  is  not  one  of  the  old  actors  whom  you  will  fail 
to  inspire  as  no  one  else  can;  and  I  hope  you  will  see 
a  little  result  of  the  friendly  union  of  the  arts,  that 
you  may  tliink  worth  seeing,  and  that  3'ou  can  see  no- 
where else. 

"We  propose  repeating  it  on  Thursday,  the  Eighth; 
Monday,  the  Twelfth;  and  Wednesday,  the  Fourteenth 
of  January.  I  do  not  encumber  tliis  note  with  so  many 
bills,  and  merely  mention  those  nights  in  case  any  one  of 
them  should  be  more  convenient  to  you  than  the  first. 

"But  I  shall  hope  for  the  first,  unless  you  dash  me 
(N.B. — I  put  Flora  into  the  current  number  on  pur- 
pose that  this  might  catch  you  softened  towards  me, 
and  at  a  disadvantage).  If  there  is  hope  of  your 
coming,  I  will  have  the  play  clearly  copied,  and  will 
send  it  to  you  to  read  beforehand." 

The  play,  of  course,  was  "The  Frozen  Deep."  There  is 
no  record  whether  the  Duke  accepted  the  invitation,  but  it 
is  more  than  probable  that  he  saw  the  play  at  one  of  its 
many  representations. 


CHAPTER  LV 

MANY    "splendid    STROLLERS" 

And  now  we  come  to  some  lesser  luminaries  who  were 
prominent  in  the  theatricals.  That  expression  is  used,  not 
out  of  any  disparagement  of  the  men  concerned,  but  merely 
in  reference  to  their  relations  with  Dickens,  Those  who  are 
to  be  named  in  this  chapter  were  not  members  of  the  inner 
Dickens  circle. 

It  is  true  that  Forster  declares  that  Dickens  had  an  old 
and  great  regard  for  George  Henry  Lewes,  but  that  is  aU 
the  evidence  we  have  of  it.  I  suppose  we  are  bound  to 
accept  the  assurance  though  I  confess  that  I  do  not  find 
it  easy.  Justin  McCarthy  records  one  remark  of  Dickens's 
about  Lewes  which  hardly  goes  to  corroborate  Forster. 
When  Lewes  wrote  a  series  of  essays  in  the  "Fortnightly 
Review,"  says  McCarthy,  on  the  principles  of  success  in 
literature,  Dickens  asked:  "Success  in  literature:  what  on 
earth  does  George  Lewes  know  about  success  in  literature?" 
Not  a  particularly  nasty  remark,  certainly,  but  it  was  not 
Dickens's  way  of  talking  about  valued  friends.  And  then, 
on  the  other  side,  there  is  Lewes's  well-known  article  on 
Dickens  which  he  wrote  for  the  "Fortnightly"  in  1871. 
Forster  has  dealt  amply  with  that  remarkable  article — 
remarkable,  not  so  much  for  the  attitude  it  reveals,  with 
which  we  are  all  quite  famUiar,  as  for  its  revelation  of  its 
M^riter's  complete  failure  to  understand  a  man  whom  he  had 
known  more  or  less  intimately  for  years.  One  extract  is 
sufficient:  "Dickens  once  declared  to  me  that  every  word 
said  by  his  characters  was  distinctly  heard  by  him;  I  was 
at  first  not  a  little  puzzled  to  account  for  the  fact  that  he 
could  hear  language  so  utterly  unlike  the  language  of  real 
feeling,  and  not  be  aware  of  its  preposterousness ;  but  the 
surprise  vanished  when  I  thought  of  the  phenomena  of 
293 


294  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

hallucination."  The  man  who  wrote  that  had  palpably  com- 
pletely failed  to  understand  Dickens,  and  where  there  is  such 
a  hopeless  lack  of  understanding  there  cannot  be  an  intimate 
friendship.  So  that  though  Dickens  may  have  had  a  cordial 
regard  for  him,  Lewes  did  not  occupy  a  place  in  the  inner 
Dickens  circle.  His  chief  association  with  the  novelist  was 
in  connection  with  the  theatricals  of  1847  and  1848.  He 
pla^^ed  Cattermole's  old  part,  Wellbred,  in  "Every  Man  in 
his  Humour,"  and  Andrew  in  "Love,  Law,  and  Ph3rsic." 

Francis  W.  Tophara  was  one  of  the  artists  who  joined  the 
company  that  produced  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem"  in  1851. 
He  played  Mr.  Goodenough  Easy.  He  was  evidently  a  so- 
ciable individual,  well  liked  by  Dickens,  for  Forster  records 
that  he  became  a  frequent  guest  at  Devonshire  Terrace. 
It  should  also  be  recorded  that  he  painted  three  scenes  from 
Dickens's  books.  One  was  from  Barnahy  Ruclge,  which  he 
presented  to  the  novelist,  and  which  was  sold  in  1870  for 
£115  105.,  and  another  was  from  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop, 
representing  Little  Nell  and  her  grandfather  in  the  tent 
making  bouquets  for  the  racecourse,  which  he  also  presented 
to  Dickens  and  which  realised  £288  15*.  in  1870.  The  third 
was  painted  in  1856.  It  was  entitled  "Little  Nell  in  the 
Churchyard,"  and  it  realised  £325  10s.  at  the  Gadshill  sale. 

Dudley  Costello  took  part  in  the  first  theatricals  at  Miss 
Kelly's  theatre  in  1845,  playing  George  Downright  in 
"Every  Man  in  his  Humour."  Stanfield  was  to  have  played 
the  part,  but  he  backed  out.  It  was  offered  to  George 
Cruikshank,  but  he  could  not  accept  and  Costello  was  in- 
vited. In  1847  he  assisted  at  the  performances  in  aid  of 
Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole,  and  in  1848  he  was  Knowell 
in  Jonson's  comedy  when  it  was  performed  in  aid  of  the 
fund  for  the  endowment  of  a  perpetual  curatorship  of 
Shakespeare's  house.  Then,  in  1851,  he  was  the  Earl  of 
Loftus  in  Lytton's  comedy,  and  Mr.  Nightingale  in  "Mr. 
Nightingale's  Diary."  There  is  absolutely  no  record  of 
any  intimacy  between  him  and  Dickens. 

Peter  Cunningham  was  associated  with  the  tour  of  1848 
as  business  manager,  or  as  the  Editors  of  Dickens's  Letters 
put  it,  he  "managed  the  wwtheatrical  part  of  this  Amateur 
Provincial  tour."  In  1851,  however,  he  came  on  to  the  stage, 
and  played  Lord  Le  Trimmer  in  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem." 


MANY  "SPLENDID  STROLLERS"     295 

He  was  one  of  the  most  popular  members  of  the  companies, 
and  with  Dickens  he  was  a  favourite.    Forster  says  : 

*'His  presence  was  always  welcome  to  Dickens,  and 
indeed  to  all  who  knew  liim,  for  his  relish  of  social  life 
was  great,  and  something  of  his  keen  enjoyment  could 
not  but  be  shared  by  his  company.  His  geniahty  would 
have  carried  with  it  a  pleasurable  glow  even  if  it  had 
stood  alone,  and  it  was  invigorated  by  very  consider- 
able acquirements.  He  had  some  knowledge  of  the 
works  of  eminent  authors  and  artists ;  and  he  had  an 
eager  interest  m  their  lives  and  haunts,  wliich  he  had 
made  tlie  subject  of  minute  and  novel  inquiry.  This 
store  of  knowledge  gave  substance  to  his  talk,  yet  never 
interrupted  his  buoyancy  and  pleasantry,  because  only 
introduced  when  called  for,  and  not  made  matter  of 
parade  or  display.  But  the  happy  combination  of 
qualities  that  rendered  him  a  favourite  companion,  and 
won  him  many  friends,  proved  in  the  end  injurious  to 
himself.  He  had  done  much  while  young  in  certain 
lines  of  investigation  which  he  had  made  almost  his 
own,  and  there  was  every  promise  that  he  would  have 
produced  much  weightier  works  with  advancing  years. 
This,  however,  was  not  to  be.  The  fascination  of 
good-fellowship  encroached  more  and  more  upon  literary 
pursuits,  until  he  nearly  abandoned  liis  former  favour- 
ite studies,  and  sacrificed  all  the  deeper  purposes  of 
his  to  the  present  temptation  of  a  festive  hour.  Then 
his  health  gave  way,  and  he  became  lost  to  friends  as 
well  as  to  literature.  But  the  impression  of  the  bright 
and  amiable  intercourse  of  his  better  times  survived, 
and  his  old  associates  never  ceased  to  think  of  Peter 
Cimningham  with  regret  and  kindness." 

It  is  a  sad  story  of  talents  wasted.  And  yet,  can  it  be 
truly  said  that  a  man  who  leaves  sweet  memories  with  a 
host  of  friends  has  wholly  wasted  his  life? 

Among  the  "splendid  strollers"  of  1851  and  1852  was 
a  young  man  named  John  Tenniel,  destined  presently  to  suc- 
ceed John  Leech  as  chief  cartoonist  for  *'Punch,"  to  draw 
the  weekly  cartoon  for  half  a  century,  and  to  leave  behind 


296  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

him,  when  he  died  in  1914,  an  imperishable  name.  Un- 
doubtedly recommended  by  his  "Punch"  colleagues,  Doug- 
las Jerrold  and  Mark  Lemon,  he  was  cast  for  the  part  of 
Hodge,  in  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem,"  and  he  took  part  in 
the  first  performance  at  Devonshire  House  on  June  18, 
1851.  By  the  Editors  of  Dickens's  Letters,  Tenniel  is  de- 
scribed as  "a  new  addition  and  a  very  valuable  and  pleasant 
one  to  the  company."  Wlien  the  company  went  on  tour 
in  the  provinces,  and  Forster  was  compelled  to  drop  out, 
Tenniel,  who  had  but  a  few  weeks  previously  joined  the  staff 
of  "Punch,"  and  thus  started  his  unique  career,  was  pro- 
moted and  given  the  part  of  Hardman.  He  proved  a  great 
success,  and  we  find  Dickens  in  a  letter  from  Sunderland, 
paying  special  tribute  to  the  excellence  of  liis  acting. 

In  the  following  year  Tenniel  played  the  Hon.  Tom 
Saville  in  performances  of  "Used  Up."  This  was  the  end 
of  his  association  as  an  actor  with  Dickens,  but  he  remained 
one  of  the  novelist's  most  esteemed  friends,  and  Forster  tells 
us  how  the  young  artist  was  one  of  the  most  frequent  guests 
at  Devonshire  Terrace.  No  one  who  knows  his  work  in 
"Puncli"  will  have  any  doubt  as  to  his  knowledge  of  and 
affection  for  Dickens's  books.  Over  and  over  again  he  went 
to  those  books  for  inspiration,  and  one  of  the  half-dozen 
best  known  of  his  cartoons  is  that  in  which  Gladstone  is 
depicted  as  "The  Political  Mrs.  Gummidge."  Tenniel  was 
associated  with  other  artists  in  illustrating  The  Haunted 
Man,  and  contributed  six  charming  pictures  to  that  Christ- 
mas story. 

For  Shirley  Brooks,  Lemon's  successor  in  Mr.  Punch's 
editorial  chair,  Dickens  always  had  a  cordial  regard;  that 
Brooks  had  at  least  an  equal  regard  for  Dickens  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  he  dedicated  his  first  novel  to  him.  They 
met  pretty  often  and  were  always  good  friends.  "To  do 
Shirley  a  good  turn  was  one  of  the  best  investments  a  man 
could  make,"  says  his  biographer,  Mr.  George  Somes 
Layard.  Dickens  made  the  investment  in  1855.  Brooks 
commenced  to  write  "The  Gordian  Knot"  for  "Bentley's 
Miscellany,"  but  failed  to  keep  up  the  instalments,  partly  be- 
cause he  had  more  work  on  hand  than  he  could  do,  and  partly 
because  of  some  domestic  trouble.  Bentley  threatened  legal 
proceedings,  but  Dickens,  with  memories,  no  doubt,  of  his 


Charles  Dickens   as   Sir  Charles   Goldstream   in 

"Used  Up" 

From  the  Painting   by   Augustus  Egg,   R.A. 


MANY  "SPLENDID  STROLLERS"     297 

own  early  days,  stepped  in,  and  as  the  result  of  his  good 
offices  the  trouble  was  settled  amicably.  Not  long  before  his 
own  death,  Dickens  visited  Brooks,  who  was  ill  and  scarcely 
expected  to  live  long,  but  yet  was  to  live  to  write  an  In 
Memoriam  leading  article  of  the  novelist  for  "Home  News," 
and  to  purchase  a  souvenir  of  his  friend  at  Christie's.  He 
bought  a  bust  of  Landor  for  £25 — which  Mr.  George  Somes 
Layard  purchased  thirty  years  later  for  4s.  6d. !  Brooks 
played  Bateson  and  Darker  in  tlie  performances  of  "The 
Frozen  Deep"  in  aid  of  Douglas  Jerrold's  family  in  1847. 

Forster  does  not  even  mention  James  Robinson  Planche, 
but  he  was  very  prominent  in  connection  with  the  Tavistock 
House  performances.  The  late  Canon  Ainger,  who,  as  a 
youngster,  took  part  in  these  festivities,  in  his  article  entitled 
"Mr.  Dickens's  Amateur  Theatricals'*  records: 

"Our  first  attempt  was  the  performance  of  Albert 
Smith's  little  burletta  of  'Guy  Fawkes'  ...  ;  at  an- 
other time  we  played  'William  Tell,'  from  the  late 
Robert  Brough's  clever  little  volume,  'A  Cracker  Bon- 
bon for  Evening  Parties.'  In  those  days  there  were 
still  extravaganzas  written  with  real  humour  and 
abundant  taste  and  fancy.  The  Broughs,  Gilbert  a 
Beckett,  and  Mr.  Planche  could  write  rhymed  couplets 
of  great  literary  excellence,  Avithout  ever  overstepping 
the  bounds  of  reverence  and  good  taste." 

Planche  was,  of  course,  the  author  of  "Fortunio"  which 
was  played  by  the  children  in  1855. 

Neither  Lionel  nor  Robert  Brough  is  mentioned  by 
Forster,  but  both,  like  Planche,  were  very  prominent  in  con- 
nection with  the  children's  theatricals,  though  they  did  not 
act.  One  3^ear,  as  we  have  just  seen,  Robert  Brough's 
"William  Tell"  was  played,  and  with  reference  to  this 
Canon  Ainger  says: 

"Extreme  purists  may  regret  that  the  story  of  the 
struggle  for  Swiss  independence  should  ever  be  pre- 
sented to  children  in  association  with  anything  ludi- 
crous ;  but,  those  critics  excepted,  no  other  could  object 
to  the  spirit  of  'gracious  foolmg'  in  which  Mr.  Brough 


298  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

represented  William  Tell  brought  up  before  Gesler 
for  'contempt  of  hat';  Albert,  his  precocious  son, 
resolving  that,  as  to  betraying  his  father,  'though  torn 
in  half,  I'll  not  be  made  to  split' ;  and  when  he  confronts 
his  father,  about  to  slioot  at  the  apple,  by  assuring 
him  that  he  is  'game,'  the  father  replying,  'Wert  thou 
game,  I  would  preserve,  not  shoot  thee.'  This  is  drol- 
lery, it  seems  to  us,  not  unworthy  of  Sydney  Smith 
or  Hood,  and  in  no  way  to  be  placed  in  the  same  cata- 
logue with  the  vulgarities  and  inanities  of  a  later 
brood." 

Gilbert  a  Beckett  stood  closer  to  Dickens  than  most  of 
those  named  in  this  chapter.  With  him  and  with  his  family 
there  was  a  very  cordial  friendship ;  but  there  is  practically 
no  record  of  it.  As  Canon  Ainger  has  told  us,  he  was  to 
the  fore  at  Tavistock  House,  but  years  before  that  he  had 
been  associated  with  the  theatrical  performances,  having 
played  William  in  the  very  first  presentation  of  "Every 
Man  in  his  Humour"  in  1845.  When  the  performance  was 
repeated  a  couple  of  months  later,  however,  he  dropped  out, 
W.  Eaton  taking  his  place.  But  in  1844  he  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  Mark  Lemon  in  dramatising  The  Chiines.  The 
piece  was  produced  at  the  Adelphi  theatre  with  Dickens's 
entire  approval  in  December  of  that  year. 

Robert  Bell,  who  played  Paddy  O'SuUivan  in  "Not  so 
Bad  as  we  Seem"  at  the  Hanover  Square  Rooms  in  1851,  had 
been  friendly  with  Dickens  for  some  years  prior  to  that, 
and  had  been  one  of  the  company  at  The  Haunted  Man 
dinner.  G.  A.  Sala  says  that  he  was  an  intimate  friend 
of  Dickens's.  Certainly  he  was  a  frequent  and  welcome  guest 
at  the  novelist's  house.  In  July  1866  he  appeared  as 
Rogue  Riderhood  in  a  version  of  Our  Mutual  Friend  entitled 
"Dustman's  Treasure,"  which  was  produced  at  the  Britannia 
Theatre.  He  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  Household  Words 
and  AU  th^  Year  Round.  Pcrcival  Leigh  was  another  of 
Mr.  Punch's  young  men  introduced  for  the  performances 
of  1845.  He  was  a  frequent  guest  at  Dickens's  house,  but 
never  penetrated  beyond  the  outer  circle.  He  wrote  occa- 
sionally for  Household  Words. 

Mr.  Francesco  Berger,  who  is  happily  still  with  us,  was 


MANY  "SPLENDID   STROLLERS"     299 

a  very  young  man  when,  as  a  music  student  in  Leipzig,  he 
met  and  formed  a  friendship  with  Dickens's  eldest  son,  who 
was  studying  the  German  language  in  that  city.  That 
friendship  naturally  led  to  visits  to  Tavistock  House,  where 
he  became  popular.  That  was  hi  1854.  In  the  following 
year,  when  pi'eparations  were  commenced  for  the  production 
of  "The  Lighthouse,"  Dickens  asked  this  clever  young 
musician  to  compose  for  it  an  original  overture,  and  to 
arrange  the  incidental  music.  He  did  as  he  was  asked,  and 
in  his  "Reminiscences,  Impressions,  and  Anecdotes"  he  has 
told  of  the  happiness  associated,  not  only  with  the  perform- 
ances themselves,  but  with  the  rehearsals  too. 

In  1857  Mr.  Berger  wrote  the  music  for  "The  Frozen 
Deep"  and  conducted  the  orchestra.  At  the  performance 
before  Queen  Victoria  at  the  Gallery  of  Illustration  copies 
of  the  overture,  bound  in  satin,  were  handed  to  her  Majesty 
and  the  Prince  Consort. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Tavistock  House  performances 
Dickens  sent  the  young  composer  a  set  of  three  shirt-front 
studs,  each  engraved  "C.  D.  to  F.  B."  They  were  "a  little 
memorial,"  wrote  the  novelist,  "in  remembrance  of  our 
pleasant  play  and  the  obligations  it  owes  to  you.  I  can 
never  forget  the  pains  you  have  taken  with  it,  or  the  spirit 
and  genius  with  which  you  have  rendered  it  high  service." 
In  1857  Mr.  Berger  was  associated  with  Dickens  in  the 
efforts  to  assist  the  family  of  Douglas  Jerrold,  and  was 
one  of  the  three  conductors  at  the  concert  at  St.  Martin's 
Hall  on  June  27. 

There  were  many  others  who  took  part  in  this  per- 
formance or  that,  but  who  call  for  no  mention  here.  They 
came  simply  to  play  certain  parts,  walked  across  the  stage, 
and  never  entered  into  Dickens's  life  in  any  degree  at  all. 

Perhaps,  however,  this  is  an  appropriate  place  in  which 
to  mention  James  Sheridan  Knowlcs,  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  primarily  for  his  benefit  that  the  performances 
of  1848  were  given.  Dickens  had  been  pretty  well  ac- 
quainted with  him  before  that.  They  had  quarrelled,  too, 
and  made  it  up  again.  This  is  clear  from  Dickens's  letter  to 
Knowles  dated  May  26,  184i7: 


300  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"My  dear  Knowles, 

"I  have  learned,  I  hope,  from  the  art  we  both 
profess  (if  you  will  forgive  this  classification  of  my- 
self with  you)  to  respect  a  man  of  genius  in  lus 
mistakes,  no  less  than  in  his  triumphs.  You  have  so 
often  read  the  human  heart  well  that  I  can  readily 
forgive  your  reading  mine  ill,  and  greatly  wronging 
me  by  the  supposition  that  any  sentiment  towards  you 
but  honour  and  respect  has  ever  found  a  place  in  it. 

"You  write  as  few  lines  which,  dying,  you  would  wish 
to  blot,  as  most  men.  But  if  3'ou  knew  me  better,  as 
I  hope  you  may  (the  fault  shall  not  be  mine  if  you 
don't),  I  know  you  will  be  glad  to  have  received  the 
assurance  that  some  part  of  your  letter  has  been  written 
on  the  sand  and  that  the  wind  has  already  blown 
over  it." 

They  did  get  to  know  each  other  better,  but  there  never 
developed  a  close  friendship.  Knowles  was  scarcely  the 
man  for  that.  He  was  a  competent  dramatist,  and  a  fairly 
good  actor ;  beyond  that  he  and  Dickens  had  nothing  in  com- 
mon, and  a  letter  of  the  novehst's  written  in  January  1850 
suggests  that  he  made  some  demands  upon  the  tolerance 
of  his  friends. 


CHAPTER  LVI 

A   GROUP    OF   ACTORS 

Naturally  Dickens  numbered  many  professional  actors 
among  his  friends.  Of  these,  of  course,  Macready  was  far 
and  away  first  in  his  regard.  Later  Fechter,  of  whom  we 
shall  speak  more  fully  presently,  exercised  an  extraordinary 
fascination  over  him.  With  these  two  he  was  especially 
intimate,  but  there  were  several  others  with  whom  he  was 
on  excellent  terms.  "Dear  old  Charles  Kemble,"  for  in- 
stance, with  whom  "occasional  happy  days"  were  spent,  and 
there  were  Samuel  Phelps,  and  John  Parry,  and  Whitworth, 
Helen  Faucit  and  Miss  Dolby,  "than  whom  none  were  more 
attractive  to  him." 

Towards  the  Keeleys  he  was  especially  well  disposed. 
Mrs.  Keeley's  acting  as  Smike  in  a  "pirated"  version  of 
Nicklehy  in  1838,  he  described  as  excellent,  and  in  1844 
he  consented  to  the  presentation  by  her  and  her  husband 
of  a  version  of  Chuzzlewit.  Keeley  asked  him  for  a  prologue. 
He  declined,  but  he  wrote:  "Believe  me  to  be  quite  sincere 
in  saying  that  if  I  felt  I  could  reasonably  do  such  a  thing 
for  any  one  I  would  do  it  for  you."  He  was  starting  for 
Italy  within  the  week,  but  he  superintended  one  rehearsal. 
In  1845  Dickens  requested  Albert  Smith  to  dramatise  The 
Cricket  on  the  Hearth  for  the  Keeleys ;  and  Mr.  Keeley 
played  Caleb  Plummer,  Mrs.  Keeley,  Dot,  and  their  daugh- 
ter Mary,  Bertha.  In  1846  Albert  Smith  prepared  The 
Battle  of  Life  for  the  stage,  and  the  Keeleys  produced  it, 
Dickens  travelling  from  Paris  expressly  to  attend  the  re- 
hearsals. That  he  thus  countenanced  such  productions  by 
the  Keeleys  is  clear  enough  evidence  of  his  high  opinion  of 
their  acting  and  of  their  characters,  too.  And  he  counted 
them  among  his  best  friends. 

With  Benjamin  Webster  he  was  very  friendly  for  a  num- 
ber of  years — on  hearty  intimate  terms,  in  fact,  In  1868 
301 


302  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Webster,  while  Dickens  was  in  America,  produced  No 
Thoroughfare  with  Fechter  in  the  leading  part,  and  in  con- 
nection with  this  production  we  have  Dickens's  own  declara- 
tion of  his  high  opinion  of  the  man.  For  in  a  letter  to 
Fechter  concerning  the  play,  he  wrote:  "Tell  Webster, 
with  my  regard,  that  I  think  his  proposal  honest  and  fair; 
that  I  think  it,  in  a  word,  like  himself;  and  that  I  have 
perfect  confidence  in  his  good  faith  and  liberality." 

John  P.  Harley  was  one  of  the  earliest  friends  that 
Dickens  made  in  the  theatrical  world.  TJw  Strange  Gentle- 
man, the  novelist's  first  serious  dramatic  venture,  was  pro- 
duced at  St.  James's  Theatre  in  September  1836,  and 
Harley  played  the  title  role.  It  is  declared  by  Theodore 
Taylor  that  Dickens  liimself  took  a  part  under  an  assumed 
name,  but  we  have  no  other  evidence  to  that  effect.  The 
piece  ran  for  three  months,  and  then  was  succeeded  by 
The  Village  Coquettes,  in  which  Harley  played  the  part  of 
Martin  Stokes.  In  1847  the  book  of  words  was  pubHshed 
by  Bentley,  vnth.  a  dedication  to  Harley.  In  March  1837 
Is  She  His  Wife?  followed  the  Coquettes,  with  Harley  as 
Felix  Tapkins.  On  March  13 — seven  days  after  the  first 
performance — Harley  took  his  benefit,  and  the  play  bill 
announced:  "Mr.  Harley  will,  in  the  character  of  Mr. 
Pickwick,  make  liis  first  visit  to  the  St.  James's  Theatre 
and  relate  to  a  Scotch  air  liis  experiences  of  a  'whitebait 
dinner  at  Blackwall,'  edited  expressly  for  him  by  liis  biog- 
rapher 'Boz.'  " 

These  theatrical  associations  led  to  a  personal  friendship 
which  was  close  and  lasting.  On  June  27,  1837,  we  read 
that  Harley  dined  with  Dickens,  Forster,  and  Macready  at 
Doughty  Street,  and  Macready  records  that  he  "laughed 
much  at  Mr.  Harley's  theatrical  efforts  to  entertain." 
Harley  was  at  the  NicTilehy  dmner,  and  at  the  ClocTc  dinner, 
too,  and  on  February  7,  1839,  we  find  Dickens  inviting  him 
to  join  his  birthday  party,  which  was  to  consist  of  Leigh 
Hunt,  Ainsworth,  and  Forster. 

In  the  following  June  we  have  a  letter  of  the  novelist's 
inviting  Harley  to  Petersham:  "Can  you  come  if  it's  fine? 
Say  yes,  like  a  good  fellow  as  you  are,  and  say  it  per 
post."  Harley  received  a  copy  of  NiclcUhy,  inscribed: 
"J.  P.  Harley,  Esquire,  from  his  friend  Charles  Dickens," 


A  GROUP  OF  ACTORS  303 

which  seventy-six  years  later  was  sold  for  £125.  Harley 
died  in  1858,"^  and  to  the  end  his  friendship  with  the  novehst 
remained  unbroken. 

John  Hullah,  who  wrote  the  music  for  The  Village  Co- 
quettes, was  on  very  friendly  terms  with  Dickens  in  those 
early  days,  and  the  novelist's  letters  to  liim  at  the  time  are 
quite  familiar  in  tone.  But  very  little  is  known  of  their 
later  relations.  Hullah  outlived  Dickens  by  fourteen  years, 
and  they  certaudy  remained  on  good  terms,  but  Forster 
ignores  him  utterly,  and  after  1836  he  is  mentioned  in 
only  one  of  the  novelist's  letters.  That  letter  is  dated 
October  24,  1860,  and  is  addressed  to  Wilkie  Collins. 
"Early  in  the  morning,  before  breakfast,"  says  Dickens, 
writing  from  Brighton,  "I  went  to  the  nearest  baths 
to  get  a  shower-bath.  They  kept  me  waiting  longer 
than  I  thought  reasonable,  and  seemg  a  man  in  a  cap  in 
the  passage,  I  went  to  him  and  said :  'I  really  must  request 
that  you'll  be  good  enough  to  see  about  this  shower-bath'; 
and  it  was  Hullah!  waiting  for  another  bath."  In  Miscel- 
laneous Papers  Dickens  mentions  Hullah  once  or  twice, 
though  only  in  regard  to  his  musical  fame.  The  references 
are  all  friendly  in  tone,  however,  showing  that  there  had 
been  no  break  in  the  good  relations. 


CHAPTER  LVH 

EEY.   JAMES   WHITE 

Dickens  was  at  the  very  zenith  of  his  powers  during  the 
latter  Devonshire  Terrace  days  and  the  Tavistock  House 
days.  The  old  friends  •  he  had  and  their  adoption  tried 
were  firmly  grappled  to  his  heart,  but  he  was  ever  making 
new  friends,  and  in  the  period  under  notice  there  were  at- 
tracted to  him  many  fine  men  whom  he  valued  for  qualities 
of  head  and  heart,  who  found  themselves  drawn  to  him  by 
that  breezy  manUness,  that  earnest  openness  of  heart,  that 
hearty  capacity  for  friendship  that  characterised  him 
throughout  his  hfe.  About  many  of  these  friendships  there 
is  not,  to  us  now,  that  glamour  that  surrounds  some  of 
the  earlier  ones,  but  they  were  all  sincere  and  deeply  rooted. 
There  was  the  Reverend  James  Wliitc,  the  Isle  of  Wight 
parson,  for  instance.  Few  friends  were  better  loved,  none 
was  more  worthy  of  the  novelist's  friendship.  I  do  not 
know  how  they  came  to  be  "first  acquaint."  Possibly  it 
was  through  Macread}^,  who  had  produced  with  success 
White's  play,  The  King  of  the  Commons;  but  howsoever 
it  was,  and  whensoever,  we  have  plenty  of  evidence  that  their 
friendship  was  particularly  close  and  heart3\  "With 
Dickens,  White  was  popular  supremely  for  his  eager  good- 
fellowship,"  sa3^s  Forstcr,  "and  few  men  brought  him  more 
of  what  he  always  liked  to  receive.  But  he  brought  nothing 
so  good  as  his  wife.  'He  is  excellent,  but  she  is  better,'  is 
the  pithy  remark  of  his  first  Bonchurch  letter.  .  .   ." 

In  1849  Dickens  decided  to  spend  his  summer  holiday  at 
some  other  place  than  Broadstairs,  and  he  selected  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  taking  a  house  at  Bonchurch.  He  was  attracted 
there,  sa^'s  Forster,  "by  the  friend  who  had  made  it  a  place 
of  interest  for  him  during  the  last  few  years,  the  Reverend 
James  White,  v.ith  whose  name  and  its  associations  my 
304 


\()    1   I)i\o>SHiKr  Tlukvc  I 

111)  II  II   I'liiiloipaph  by  B    Snoudcn   Waid 


REV.  Jz\MES  WHITE  305 

mind    connects    inseparably    many    of    Dickens's    happiest 
hours ! 

"To  pay  him  fitting  tribute"  (Forster  adds)  "would 
not  be  easy,  if  here  it  were  called  for.  In  the  kindly, 
shrewd  Scotch  face,  a  keen  sensitiveness  to  pleasure 
and  pain  was  the  first  tiling  that  struck  any  common 
observer.  Cheerfulness  and  gloom  coursed  over  it  so 
rapidly  that  no  one  could  question  the  tale  they  told. 
But  the  relish  of  his  life  had  outlived  its  more  than 
usual  share  of  sorrow;  and  quaint,  sly  humour,  love 
of  jest  and  merriment,  capital  knowledge  of  books, 
and  sagacious  quips  at  men,  made  his  companionship 
delightful." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  was  during  this  holiday 
that  Dickens's  boys  had  as  playmates  a  golden-haired  lad 
named  Algernon  Charles  Swinburne,  whose  parents  lived  on 
the  island. 

One  might  quote  a  great  deal  from  Dickens's  letters  to 
White,  but  it  is  not  necessary.  The  letters  were  frequent 
and  lengthy  and  brimful  of  hearty  friendship.  The  friends 
met  fairly  often,  too,  and  White  and  his  family  were  always 
enthusiastically  welcomed  at  the  novelist's  home.  It  has  to 
be  added  that  Wliite  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  House- 
Jiold  Words  from  its  commencement  and  to  AH  the  Year 
Round.  In  October  1852  he  was  invited  to  contribute  to  the 
Christmas  number.  "We  are  now  getting  our  Christmas 
extra  number  together,  and  I  think  you  are  the  boy  to  do, 
if  you  will,  one  of  the  stories.  .  .  .  The  grandfather  might 
very  well  be  old  enough  to  have  lived  in  the  days  of  the 
highwaymen.  Do  you  feel  disposed,  from  fact,  fancy,  or 
both,  to  do  a  good  winter-hearth  story  of  a  highwayman.^ 
If  you  do,  I  embrace  you  (per  post),  and  throw  up  a  cap  I 
have  purchased  for  the  purpose  into  mid  air."  White  did 
feel  disposed,  and  wrote  "The  Grandfather's  Story" — "a 
very  good  story  indeed,"  Dickens  declared.  Four  years 
later  he  contributed  "the  Scotch  Boy's  Story"  to  Tlie 
Wreck  of  the  Golden  Mary.  These  were  all  the  Christmas 
numbers  in  which  he  appeared,  but  he  often  wrote  for  the 
weekly  issues  of  both  papers. 


CHAPTER  LVni 

SOME    VALUED    FRIENDS    OF    THIS    PERIOD 

Another  vcr3^  special  favourite  was  Sir  James  Emerson 
Tennent.  Wlien  Dickens  was  in  his  prime — certainly  from 
1850  onwards — nobody  was  more  welcome  at  his  house; 
and  the  last  book  that  he  completed — Our  Mutual  Friend 
— ^was  dedicated  to  Tennent.  The  friendship  is  not  surpris- 
ing. Tennent  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  reform.  He  was 
at  Earl  Grey's  side  in  the  final  struggle  over  the  Reform 
Bin  in  1832,  and  later  he  supported  Peel,  though  he  was 
secretary  to  the  Government  of  Ceylon  when  the  Com  Laws 
were  actually  repealed.  He  was,  in  fact,  an  enlightened  man, 
a  widely  travelled  man,  with  genuine  literary  capacity,  and 
he  was  gifted  with  the  all  too  rare  capacity  for  friendship. 

In  1853  Dickens  and  the  Tennents  had  many  happy  days 
together  at  Naples  and  elsewhere  in  Italy,  and  those  days 
remained  with  Dickens  a  particularly  pleasant  memory. 
We  find  him  writing  in  1857,  for  instance:  "I  must  thank 
you  for  your  earnest  and  aiTectionate  letter.  It  has  given  me 
the  greatest  pleasure,  mixing  the  play  in  my  mind  confusedly 
and  delightfully  with  Pisa,  the  Valetta,  Naples,  Hercu- 
lanaeum — God  knows  what  not."  The  play  referred  to  was 
The  Frozen  Deep.  The  friendship  continued  and  grew 
stronger.  Tennent  was  frequently  at  Dickens's  house,  and 
he  was  one  of  the  few  friends  for  whom  the  novelist  turned 
out  a  couple  of  postilions  "in  the  old  red  jackets  of  the 
old  red  royal  Dover  road."  In  1864*  came  the  dedication 
of  Our  Mutual  Friend,  to  which  the  following  is  an  allusion : 
*'I  am  heartily  pleased  that  you  set  so  much  store  by  the 
dedication.  You  may  be  sure  that  it  does  not  make  me 
the  less  anxious  to  take  pains,  and  to  work  out  well  what 
I  have  in  my  mind." 

Tennent  died  in  March  1869.  Just  at  that  time  Dickens's 
health  was  failing,  and  he  was  soon  to  have  that  breakdown 
306 


SOME  VALUED  FRIENDS  307 

which  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  But  he  determined  to 
attend  his  friend's  funeral.  On  March  11  ho  read  at  York, 
and,  says  Forster,  by  shortening  the  pauses  in  the  readmg, 
he  succeeded,  after  a  violent  rush,  in  catching  the  mail.  He 
travelled  through  the  night,  and  so  reached  London  in 
time.  "He  appeared  'dazed'  and  worn,"  says  Forster.  "No 
man  could  well  look  more  so  than  he  did  that  sorrowful 
morning."  On  the  following  day,  in  a  letter  to  Austen 
Layard,  Dickens  referred  sadly  to  those  Italian  days  of 
sixteen  years  bef oi*e :  "I  came  to  town  hurriedly  to  attend 
poor  dear  Emerson  Tennent's  funeral.  You  will  know  how 
my  mind  went  back,  in  the  York  uptrain  at  midnight,  to 
Mount  Vesuvius  and  our  Neapolitan  supper." 

With  the  last  named,  Sir  Austen  Henry  Layard,  there 
was  a  very  similar  friendship.  Layard  had  been  of  the 
company  during  those  days  in  Italy ;  he,  too,  as  all  the 
world  knows,  was  a  great  traveller;  he,  too,  was  a  Member 
of  Parliament,  whose  views  on  most  questions  coincided  with 
Dickens's  own ;  he,  too,  possessed  literary  tastes  and  gifts ; 
he,  too,  had  the  capacity  for  friendship  highly  developed. 
With  him,  as  with  Tennent,  there  were  many  "social  enter- 
tainments"; he  was  a  frequent  and  heartily  welcome  guest 
at  Dickens's  house;  for  him,  too,  the  postilions  were  turned 
out  on  the  Dover  road.  They  met  about  1851,  and  the 
Editors  of  Dickens's  Letters  tell  us  that  the  novelist  at 
once  conceived  for  the  great  Nineveh  traveller  an  affectionate 
friendship  which  went  on  increasing  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Forster  tells  us  that  Layard  held  the  same  opinion  of 
Dickens  as  Sir  Arthur  Helps — that  he  was  "a  man  to  con- 
fide in,  and  look  up  to  as  a  leader,  in  the  midst  of  any  great 
peril."  And  he  records  that  Layard  was  at  Gadsliill  during 
the  Christmas  before  Dickens  went  to  America  for  the  last 
time. 

We  have  it  on  the  authority  of  the  Editors  of  Dickens's 
Letters  that  the  Rev.  Edward  Tagart  was  a  very  highly 
esteemed  and  valued  friend,  and  there  is  plenty  of  evidence 
in  support  of  this  statement  both  in  the  Letters  and  in 
Forster's  book,  though  Tagart  certainly  had  not  the  social 
qualities  of  Tennent  and  Layard.  It  was  in  the  early 
'forties  that  they  came  to  know  each  other.  Dickens  found 
himself   somewhat   out  of   sympathy  with   the   Established 


808  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Church,  and  for  two  or  three  years  took  sittings  at  the 
Little  Portland  Street  Unitarian  Chapel,  of  which  Mr. 
Tagart  was  minister,  and  although  they  had  met  before,  it 
was  during  tliis  period  that  their  friendship  was  formed  and 
cemented  so  firmly  that  it  outlived  Dickens's  return  to  the 
Established  Church.  In  1844  we  find  Tagart  and  liis  family 
visiting  the  noveUst  at  Albaro,  and  in  1849  they  were  at 
the  Copperfield  christening  dinner,  on  which  occasion, 
Forster  tells  us,  the  reverend  gentleman  was  seated  next  to 
Carlyle,  and  "was  soon  heard  launching  at  him  various 
metaphysical  questions  in  regard  to  heaven  and  suchlike." 
Forster  adds :  "The  relief  was  great  when  Thackeray  intro- 
duced, with  quaint  whimsicality,  a  story  which  he  and  I  had 
heard  Macready  relate  in  talking  to  us  about  his  boyish 
days,  of  a  country  actor  who  had  supported  himself  for 
six  months  on  his  judicious  treatment  of  the  'tag'  to  the 
Castle  Spectre.^' 

Which  reminiscence  suggests  that  the  good  Mr.  Tagart 
(as  Forster  calls  him)  was  scarcely  the  friend  for  all  occa- 
sions. He  was  a  solid,  good  man,  for  whose  character  and 
intellect  Dickens  had  high  esteem,  but  his  sense  of  humour 
was  not  highly  developed,  and  of  intimacy  such  as  existed 
with  Tennent  and  Layard  there  was  really  none. 

Sir  Joseph  Oliffe  was  a  valued  friend  of  whose  intimacy 
with  the  novelist  there  is  very  little  record.  Forster  never 
mentions  him  at  all,  yet  Dickens  declares  in  one  of  his 
letters :  "I  loved  him  truly.  His  wonderful  gentleness  and 
kindness  years  ago,^  when  we  had  sickness  in  our  household 
in  Paris,  has  never  been  out  of  my  grateful  remembrance. 
And,  socially,  his  image  is  inseparable  from  some  of  the 
most  genial  and  dehghtful  friendly  hours  of  my  life." 
Oliffe  was  physician  to  the  British  Embassy  in  Paris,  and 
the  reference  in  this  letter  is  to  1855,  when  Dickens  and  his 
family  spent  some  time  in  the  French  capital  during  the 
writing  of  Little  Dorrit.  With  Lady  Oliffe  the  friendship 
was  equally  strong,  as  several  letters  show.  Here  is  one  as 
an  example.    It  is  dated  May  26,  1861. 

"Touching  the  kind  invitations   received  from  you 
this  morning,  I  feel  that  the  only  course  I  can  take — 

1  The  letter  was  written  to  Oliffe's  daughter  in  March  1869,  when  her  father 
died. 


SOME  VALUED  FRIENDS  309 

without  being  a  Humbug — is  to  decline  them.  After 
the  middle  of  June  I  shall  be  mostly  at  Gad's  Hill — 
I  know  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  keep  out  of  the 
way  of  hot  rooms  and  late  dinners,  and  what  would 
you  think  of  me,  or  call  me,  if  I  were  to  accept  and 
not  come ! 

"No,  no,  no.  Be  still,  my  soul.  Be  virtuous, 
eminent  author.  Do  not  accept,  ray  Dickens.  She  is 
to  come  to  Gad's  Hill  with  her  spouse.  Await  her 
there,  my  child.     (Thus  the  voice  of  wisdom.)" 

Writing  of  the  late  Devonshire  House  days,  Forster  says : 
"It  will  introduce  the  last  and  not  least  honoured  name  into 
my  list  of  his  acquaintance  and  friends,  if  I  mention  his 
amusing  little  interruption  one  day  to  Professor  Owen's 
descriptions  of  a  telescope  of  huge  dimensions  built  by  an 
enterprising  clergyman  who  had  taken  to  the  study  of  the 
stars;  and  who  was  eager,  said  Owen,  to  see  farther  into 
heaven — he  was  going  to  say,  than  Lord  Rosse;  if  Dickens 
had  not  drily  interposed,  'than  his  professional  studies 
had  enabled  him  to  penetrate.'  "  This  is  Forster's  only 
reference  to  so  distinguished  a  friend  as  Sir  Richard  Owen, 
F.R.S.,  whom  he  declares  to  have  been  not  the  least  honoured 
of  the  novelist^s  friends. 


CHAPTER  LIX 

CHAUNCEY  HARE  TOWNSHEND 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  all  Dickens's  friendships 
was  that  with  Chauncey  Hare  Townshend,  who  worshipped 
the  novelist  with  a  devotion  that  was  complete.  Townshend 
was  a  most  ardent  hero-worshipper  where  Dickens  was  con- 
cerned, and  was  most  demonstrative  in  his  affection.  Here, 
for  instance,  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  the 
novelist  to  his  elder  daughter  in  1859:  "I  wish  you  could 
have  seen  him  alone  with  me  on  Saturda}';  he  was  so  ex- 
traordinarily earnest  and  affectionate  on  my  belongings  and 
affairs  m  general,  and  not  least  of  all  on  you  and  Katie, 
that  he  cried  in  a  most  pathetic  manner,  and  was  so  affected 
that  I  was  obliged  to  leave  him  among  the  flower-pots  in 
the  long  passage  at  the  end  of  the  dining-room.  It  was  a 
very  good  piece  of  truthfulness  and  sincerity,  especially  in 
one  of  his  3'ears,  able  to  take  hfe  so  easily." 

No  man  was  ever  more  capable  of  responding  to  such 
devotion  than  Charles  Dickens,  and  he  undoubtedly  had  a 
very  tender  regard  for  this  eccentric  clerg^^man.  This  is 
what  he  wrote  to  Miss  Hogarth  from  America  when 
Townshend  died: 

"Just  now  ...  I  received  your  sad  news  of  the 
death  of  poor  Chauncey.  It  naturally  goes  to  my 
heart.  It  is  not  a  light  thing  to  lose  such  a  friend, 
and  I  truly  loved  him.  In  the  first  unreasonable  train 
of  feeling,  I  dwelt  more  than  I  should  have  thought 
possible  on  my  being  unable  to  attend  his  funeral.  I 
know  how  little  this  really  matters;  but  I  know  he 
would  have  wished  me  to  be  there  with  real  honest 
tears  for  his  memory,  and  I  feel  it  very  much.  I  never, 
never,  never  was  better  loved  by  man  than  I  was  by  liim, 
310 


CHAUNCEY  HARE  TOWNSHEND     311 

I  am  sure.     Poor  dear  fellow,  good  affectionate  gentle 
creature." 

Townshend,  eccentric  that  he  was,  had  all  the  qualities 
that  win  love.  He  was  gentle,  affectionate,  simply  good. 
Bulwer  Lytton  says:  "About  this  time  (1821)  I  fortunately 
contracted  an  acquaintance  with  a  young  man  some  years 
older  tlian  myself.  Indeed,  he  had  just  taken  his  degree 
at  Cambridge,  where  he  gamed  the  Chancellor's  medal  for  a 
poem  on  Jerusalem.  .  .  .  He  impressed  me  with  the  idea 
of  being  singularly  calm  and  pure.  In  spite  of  a  beauty 
of  face  which  at  that  time  attracted  the  admiration  of  all 
who  even  passed  him  in  the  streets,  his  manners  and  con- 
versation were  characterised  by  an  almost  feminine 
modesty."  Speaking  of  him  as  he  knew  him  many  years 
later,  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  says  that  Townshend  had  all 
the  gentle  amiability  of  Cousin  Feenix,  with  a  sort  of  old- 
fashioned  simplicity  and  aristocratic  bearing.  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald even  suggests  that  To^vaishend  was  the  original  of 
Cousin  Feenix,  but  as  in  another  place  he  names  him  as 
the  prototype  of  Mr.  Twemlow,  we  should  not,  perhaps, 
take  this  too  seriously.  None  the  less,  both  these  char- 
acters, though  somewhat  eccentric,  are  simple  souls  with 
aristocratic  bearing,  gentlemen  by  birth,  breeding,  and 
nature,  and  such  characteristics  might  well  have  been  taken 
from  Townshend. 

Dickens  dedicated  Great  Expectations  to  this  friend,  and 
also  gave  him  the  manuscript  of  that  book — very  marked 
proof  of  the  regard  he  had  for  him.  Townshend,  as  is  well 
known,  selected  Dickens  as  his  literary  executor — "I  ap- 
point my  friend  Charles  Dickens,  of  Gad's  Hill  Place,  in 
the  County  of  Kent,  Esquire,  my  literary  executor;  and  beg 
of  him  to  publish  without  alteration  as  much  of  my  notes 
and  reflections  as  may  make  known  my  opinions  on  religious 
matters,  they  being  such  as  I  verily  believe  would  be  con- 
ducive to  the  happiness  of  mankind." 

It  was  a  heavy  and  not  very  congenial  task.  The  "Re- 
ligious Opinions  of  Chauncey  Hare  Townshend"  are  poor 
stuff,  in  any  case.  Dickens  was  just  returned  from  that 
tragic  American  reading  tour,  and  was  in  poor  health. 
Some  of  the  papers  were  in  Lausanne,  some  were  in  London ; 


312  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

the  religious  opinions  were  the  accumulation  of  years,  some 
connected  and  prepared  for  the  press,  others  "all  over  the 
place,"  so  to  speak,  so  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
trace  any  sequence  at  all,  and  they  were  intermixed  with 
journals  of  travel,  fragments  of  poems,  critical  essays,  old 
school  exercises,  etc.  But  Dickens  went  through  with  his 
task  for  the  sake  of  the  love  that  he  had  borne  his  friend, 
and  the  book  was  duly  published. 


CHAPTER  LX 

AN   EDITOR   AND   AN   HISTORIAN 

The  friendship  with  Lord  Macaulay  and  John  T.  Delane 
do  not  come  within  the  same  category  as  those  just  recorded, 
but  Dickens  knew  both  men  very  well — Delane  particularly. 
He  was,  in  Forster's  words,  always  a  highly  esteemed  friend 
of  Dickens's,  but  there  is  no  record  of  the  friendship. 
Forster  himself  mentions  the  famous  "Times"  Editor  only 
twice,  and  each  time  it  is  a  bare  reference;  there  are  only 
two  references  to  the  novelist  in  Mr.  A.  I.  Dasent's  "Life 
of  Delane" — each  a  mere  record  that  the  two  men  had 
dined  together,  once  at  Dickens's  house  in  1857,  and  once 
at  Lord  Alfred  Paget's  in  1858;  and  there  are  only  three 
references  to  Delane  in  Dickens's  Letters,  One  of  these  is 
a  record  of  the  fact  that  it  was  Delane  who  recommended 
the  school  at  Boulogne  to  which  Dickens  sent  four  of  his 
boys ;  another  is  the  novelist's  letter  to  Delane  thanking 
him  for  his  recommendation ;  and  the  third  is  contained  in 
a  letter  to  Macready  (1869),  and  is  as  follows:  "I  dined 
at  Greenwich  a  few  days  ago  with  Delane.  He  asked  about 
you  with  much  interest.  He  looks  as  if  he  had  never  seen 
a  printing  office,  and  had  never  been  out  of  bed  after  mid- 
night." 

To  Dickensians,  of  course,  Delane  is  remembered  as  the 
friend  who  did  Dickens  perhaps  the  greatest  disservice  of 
his  life,  though,  of  course,  with  good  intent.  For  it  was  his 
advice  which  finally  decided  Dickens  to  publish  his  famous 
denial  of  the  slanders  which  grew  up  around  his  separation 
from  his  wife.  Forster,  Lemon,  and  Yates,  were  all  against 
publication,  but  Dickens  remained  unmoved  by  their  argu- 
ments. At  last  Forster  suggested  that  Delane  should  be 
asked  for  his  advice,  and  Dickens  agreed.  He  was  for  pub- 
lication, and  the  statement  appeared  in  Household  Words, 
313 


314  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

June  12,  1858.  How  the  discreet  adviser  of  Prime  Min- 
isters and  Foreign  Secretaries  came  to  give  such  bad  advice 
in  this  case  is  a  lasting  puzzle. 

With  Macaulay  there  was  even  less  intimacy,  though 
Dickens  knew  him  before  his  American  tour,  and  they  re- 
mained on  good  terms  until  the  historian  died  in  1859.  We 
know  practically  nothing  about  their  relations  (though  we 
do  know  that  Macaulay  had  a  high  opinion  of  Dickens's 
works  as  a  humanising  influence)  ;  but  it  is  quite  certain 
that  there  was  no  intimacy  between  them.  How  could  there 
be?  Both  were  good  men  with  strong  humanitarian  feelings ; 
but  what  could  Macaulay,  the  solemn,  portentous  Macaulay, 
scholar,  politician,  devourer  of  Latin  and  Greek  classics, 
have  in  common  with  Dickens,  the  man  of  the  world,  the 
liver  of  life  at  full  pressure,  Dickens  the  uneducated,  m^io 
knew  no  more  Latin  or  Greek  than  Macaulay's  valet?  But 
they  could  value  each  other's  fine  qualities,  none  the  less. 
We  cannot  doubt  but  that  Macaulay's  virtues  and  genius 
were  appraised  by  Dickens  at  their  true  worth;  and  we 
know  that  Dickens's  love  of  humanity  and  power  of  ap- 
pealing direct  to  the  heart  were  fully  appreciated  by 
Macaulay.     The  very  last  entry  in  the  latter's  Journal  is: 

"Have  you  seen  the  first  number  of  Dovibeyf  There 
is  not  much  in  it;  but  there  is  one  passage  which 
made  me  cry  as  if  my  heart  would  break.  It  is  the 
description  of  a  little  girl  who  has  lost  an  affectionate 
mother  and  is  unkindly  treated  by  everybody.  Images 
of  this  sort  always  overpower  me,  even  when  the  artist 
is  less  skilful  than  Dickens.'* 

But,  needless  to  say,  Macaulay  was  not  an  undiscrim- 
inating  admirer  of  the  novelist.  In  1842  he  writes  to  the 
Editor  of  the  "Edinburgh  Review" :  "I  wish  Dickens's  book 
to  be  kept  for  me.  I  have  never  written  a  word  on  that 
subject;  and  I  have  a  great  deal  in  my  head.  Of  course 
I  shall  be  courteous  to  Dickens,  whom  I  know,  and  whom 
I  think  both  a  man  of  genius  and  a  good-hearted  man,  in 
spite  of  some  faults  of  taste."  The  book  referred  to  was 
American  Notes.  A  short  time  afterwards  we  find  him 
writing : 


AN  EDITOR  AND  AN  HISTORIAN    315 

"This  morning  I  received  Dickens's  book.  I  have 
now  read  it.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  review  it;  nor 
do  I  think  you  would  wish  me  to  do  so.  I  cannot 
praise  it,  and  I  will  not  cut  it  up.  I  cannot  praise 
it,  though  it  contains  a  few  lively  dialogues  and  de- 
scriptions ;  for  it  seems  to  me  to  be  on  the  whole  a 
failure.  It  is  written  like  the  worst  parts  of  Hum- 
plirey's  Clock.  What  is  meant  to  be  easy  and  sprightly 
is  vulgar  and  flippant,  as  in  the  first  two  pages.  What 
is  meant  to  be  fine  is  a  great  deal  too  fine  for  me,  as 
the  descrpption  of  the  Fall  of  Niagara.  ...  In  short, 
I  pronounce  the  book,  in  spite  of  some  gleams  of 
genius,  at  once  frivolous  and  dull.  Therefore  I  will 
not  praise  it.  Neither  will  I  attack  i.t ;  first,  because 
I  have  eaten  salt  with  Dickens ;  secondly,  because  he 
is  a  good  man,  and  a  man  of  real  talent ;  tliirdly,  be- 
cause he  hates  slavery  as  heartily  as  I  do ;  and 
fourthly,  because  I  wish  to  see  him  enrol  in  our  blue 
and  yellow  corps,  where  he  may  do  excellent  services 
as  a  skirmisher  and  sharpshooter." 

So  Macaulay  never  wrote  about  Dickens,  and  the  fact 
may  be  regretted.  A  pronouncement  by  him  on  the  work 
of  the  great  humorist  would  have  been  tremendously  in- 
teresting. An  article  from  Macaulay's  pen  on  Pickwick, 
for  instance ! 

He  makes  only  one  other  reference  to  the  novelist,  which 
deals  with  the  Leigh  Hunt-Harold  Skimpole  controversy, 
and  puts  the  case  against  Dickens  very  strongly. 


CHAPTER  LXI 

SOME  LESSER  FEIENDSHIPS   OF   THIS   PERIOD 

There  are  several  members  of  what  I  have  called  the 
outer  Dickens  circle  who  more  or  less  belong  to  tliis  period. 
Frederick  Locker-Lampson  first  saw  the  novelist  at  a  charity 
bazaar  in  the  Painted  Hall  of  Greenwich  Hospital  on  July 
1,  1841.  Three  years  later  he  was  introduced  to  him  at 
an  Odd  Fellows'  club  dinner.  Another  four  years  passed 
before  their  next  meeting  at  the  Athenaeum,  but  after  that 
they  met  often. 

It  was  Locker-Lampson  who  made  Dickens  and  Dean 
Stanley  acquainted,  and  it  was  through  him,  after  the 
novelist's  death,  that  Stanley  made  the  offer  of  burial  in 
the  Abbey.  His  final  estimate  of  Dickens  is  worth  quoting: 
"Dickens  was  a  very  good  fellow,  a  delightful  companion, 
warm-hearted,  gay-natured,  with  plenty  of  light-in-hand 
fun,  and  a  great  capacity  for  friendsliip.  He  was  the  de- 
voted lifelong  servant  of  the  public,  and  in  my  opinion,  to 
say  the  least  of  him,  he  was  the  most  laughter-provoking 
writer  that  the  world  has  ever  known." 

Tom  Taylor,  who  succeeded  Shirley  Brooks  as  Editor  of 
"Punch,"  was  also  very  friendly — ^but,  of  course,  Dickens 
was  on  friendly  temis  with  all  Mr.  Punch's  m.en.  Certainly 
he  was  on  excellent  terms  with  Taylor  from  1848.  They 
were  frequently  together,  but  there  is  no  record  of  their 
friendship,  which  was  never  really  intimate. 

With  Lord  Carlisle  Dickens  was  on  the  best  of  terms  for 
a  great  many  years.  The  first  evidence  we  have  of  their 
friendship  is  a  letter  written  by  Dickons  to  Lord  Carlisle 
in  July  1851 :  "We  shall  be  delighted  to  see  you,  if  you 
will  come  down  on  Saturday.  Mr.  Lemon  may  perhaps  be 
here  with  his  wife,  but  no  one  else.  And  we  can  give  you  a 
bed  that  may  be  surpassed,  with  a  welcome  that  cannot  be. 
316 


SOME  LESSER  FRIENDSHIPS         317 

.  .  .  You  will  have  for  a  iiiglit-liglit  in  tlie  room  we  shall 
give  you  the  North  Foreland  Lighthouse.  That  and  the 
sea  air  are  our  only  lions.  It  is  a  very  rough  little  place, 
but  a  very  pleasant  one,  and  you  will  make  it  pleasanter 
than  ever  to  me."  Dickens  had  much  in  sympathy  with 
Carhsle,  who  had  been  a  supporter  of  the  great  Reform 
Bill,  and  was  always  on  the  side  of  progress. 

Lady  Molcsworth  was  one  of  the  select  few  for  whom  the 
postilions  were  turned  out  at  Gadshill.  She  was  "an  old 
and  dear  friend."  But  we  have  no  record  of  this  friendship, 
and  none  of  Dickens's  letters  to  her  is  preserved.  We  know, 
however,  that  she  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Ford,  were  fre- 
quent guests  at  his  house,  and  that  he  was  as  often  their 
guest;  whilst  at  Paris  in  1863  they  had  many  pleasant 
hours  together. 

No  more  can  be  written  about  Lord  and  Lady  Lovelace. 
Forster  mentions  them  only  once,  and  their  names  do  not 
occur  in  the  Letters;  but  we  do  know  that  there  was  a  very 
pleasant  friendship,  and  that  after  Dickens's  return  from 
Italy  in  1846  they  were  frequently  guests  at  his  house. 
Apparently  tliis  friendship  arose  out  of  the  friendship  with 
Sir  George  Crawford,  with  whom  Dickens  had  had  much 
pleasant  intercourse  in  Genoa.  He  married  Lovelace's  sister, 
and  thus  Dickens  came  to  know  his  wordship  and  his  wife. 
We  are  told  that  Paul  Dombey's  death  laid  a  strange  fas- 
cination on  Lady  Lovelace. 

Matthew  Higgins  was  another  with  whom  Dickens  was 
very  friendly,  yet  of  whom  Forster  records  nothing  except 
that  the  postilions  were  turned  out  in  his  honour.  That 
fact  alone,  however,  is  proof  that  he  was  held  in  special 
esteem.  His  gift  of  humour,  and  liis  enthusiasm  for  social 
reform,  would  be  sufficient  to  account  for  it. 

Giving  a  list  of  Dickens's  most  valued  friends  at  this 
period  Forster  says:  "Licomplete  indeed  would  be  the  list 
if  I  did  not  add  to  it  the  frank  and  hearty  Lord  Nugent, 
who  had  so  much  of  his  grandfather,  Goldsmith's  friend, 
in  his  lettered  tastes  and  jovial  enjoyments."  That  is  all 
we  are  told  of  a  friendship  that  was  very  hearty  and  greatly 
valued.  In  regard  to  Lord  Dudley  Stuart  we  are  in  the 
same  unfortunate  position.  "There  was,"  says  Forster,  "a 
charm  for  him  I  should  find  it  difficult  to  exaggerate  in 


318  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Lord  Dudley  Stuart's  gentle  yet  noble  character,  liis  re- 
fined intelligence  and  generous  public  life,  expressed  so  per- 
fectly in  his  chivalrous  face."  No  further  reference  to  so 
valued  a  friend! 

Sir  Arthur  Helps  may  find  his  place  here.  He  was  a 
well-liked  friend.  His  son  has  told  all  there  is  to  tell  of 
his  associations  with  the  novelist,  in  his  recent  book.^ 

Dickens's  first  letter  to  Helps  was  dated  January  3,  1854, 
at  which  time  the  two  men  were  clearly  not  intimate. 
Helps  made  it  a  habit,  his  son  tells  us,  to  send  to  friends 
and  to  prominent  men  he  had  met  copies  of  his  books.  From 
the  letter  which  I  quote  it  seems  clear  that  he  had  met 
Dickens  on  some  occasion  and  now  had  sent  him  a  copy  of 
"Friends  in  Council"  with  a  reminder  of  the  occasion.  This 
is  the  letter: 

"Dear  Sir, 

"I  too  have  a  very  pleasant  remembrance  of 
the  evening  to  which  you  refer,  and  your  name  is  so 
much  a  part  of  it  that  I  required  no  other  reminder. 

"I  shall  take  counsel  with  our  'Friends,'  with  the 
greatest  interest  in  the  subject  that  occupies  their 
thoughts.  Sanitary  improvements  are  the  one  thing 
needful  to  begin  with;  and  until  they  are  thoroughly, 
efficiently,  and  uncompromisingly  made  (and  every 
bestial  little  prejudice  and  supposed  interest  contrari- 
wise crushed  under  foot)  even  Education  itself  will  fall 
short  of  its  uses." 

For  some  years  after  this  there  remained  just  an  ac- 
quaintanceship, so  far  as  I  can  gather,  and  it  was  not 
until  1861  that  Dickens  and  Helps  came  really  to  know 
each  other.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  they  met  at  Lytton's 
seat  at  Knebworth,  and  Forster  tells  us  that  then  they 
visited,  in  company  with  Lord  Orford,  the  so-called 
"Hermit"  near  Stevenage,  whom  Dickens  described  as  Mr. 
Mopes  in  Tom  Tiddler^s  Gromid.  Thenceforward  they  were 
on  friendly  terms,  and  they  seem  to  have  met  fairly  often. 
We  know  that  Helps  visited  the  novelist  at  Gadshill,  for 

1 "  Correspondence  of  Sir  Arthur  Helps,  K.C.B.,  D.C.L."  Edited  by  his 
son,  E.  A.  Helps. 


SOME  LESSER  FRIENDSHIPS         319 

Forster  tells  us  that  the  postilions  were  turned  out  for  him. 

But  of  course  the  most  interesting  feature  of  Dickens's 
friendship  with  Helps  is  that  it  brought  about  his  famous 
interview  with  Queen  Victoria.  He  told  the  Queen  of  some 
very  interesting  photographs  of  battlefields  of  the  American 
Civil  War  which  Dickens  had  shown  him,  and  Her  Majesty 
desired  to  see  them.  Dickens  sent  them  to  her,  and  she  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  meet  him  and  thank  him. 

Mr.  Helps  quotes  a  letter  from  Dickens  to  his  father, 
which  is  of  peculiar  interest,  and  which  I  had  not  seen  be- 
fore. It  certainly  is  not  published  in  The  Letters  of  Charles 
Dickens. 

It  is  dated  from  Hyde  Park  Place,  Saturday,  March  26, 
1870,  and  is  as  follows: 

"The  binder  reports  to  me  to-day  that  he  wants 
^another  fortnight'  for  the  completion  of  the  set  of 
my  books  which  I  have  entrusted  to  him  to  bind  for 
the  Queen.  Of  course  he  must  have  it,  or  he  will  for- 
ever believe  that  I  spoilt  his  work  by  driving  him. 

"En  attendant,  I  send  you  for  Her  Majesty  the  first 
number  of  my  new  story  which  will  not  be  published 
till  next  Thursday,  the  31st.  Will  you  kindly  give 
it  to  the  Queen  with  my  loyal  duty  and  devotion?  If 
Her  Majesty  should  ever  be  sufficiently  interested  in 
the  tale  to  desire  to  know  a  little  more  of  it  in  advance 
of  her  subjects,  j^ou  know  how  proud  I  shall  be  to 
anticipate  the  publication. 

"You  will  receive  soon  after  this  a  copy  of  your 
Godson's  most  portable  edition  of  his  writings  for 
yourself.  I  hope  you  may  like  it,  and,  revising  and 
abbreviating  the  Catechism,  'do  one  thing  in  his  name' : 
— read  it." 

This  letter  makes  one  wonder  whether  Queen  Victoria  or 
Sir  Arthur  Helps  could  have  helped  us  to  solve  the  Drood 
problem. 

Thomas  Milner  Gibson  was  a  staunch  progressive  in 
Parliament,  for  whose  public  work  Dickens  had  a  great 
admiration,  and  with  whom  he  was  on  most  friendly  terms. 
Dickens  especially  appreciated  Gibson's  efforts  which  were 


320  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

chiefly  responsible  for  the  repeal  of  the  advertisement  duty, 
the  newspaper  stamp  duty,  and  the  paper  duty.  But  they 
had  been  friends  long  before  those  important  reforms  were 
brought  about — intimate  friends :  indeed,  this  friendship  was 
one  of  the  pleasantest  of  the  novelist's  life. 

Forster  never  once  mentions  George  Grove,  Secretary  of 
the  Society  of  Arts,  Secretary  and  Director  of  the  Crystal 
Palace  Co.,  Editor  of  "Macmillan's  Magazine,"  etc.,  and 
none  of  Dickens's  letters  to  him  is  preserved.  But  he  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  novelist,  and  when  Sir  Arthur 
Helps  wrote  for  "Macmillan's"  in  1870  an  In  Memoriam 
of  Dickens  he  wrote  to  him  that  "Dickens  was  the  best  and 
pleasantest  person  in  the  world  to  tell  a  good  story  to. 
You  saw  that  he  was  taking  in  every  word.  As  you  went 
on,  the  sense  of  fun  seemed  to  rise  in  his  face — his  eyes  shone 
and  looked  more  and  more  knowing  as  you  neared  the  point ; 
and  the  moment  it  was  reached  there  was  just  that  explosion 
that  was  most  gratifying." 

Thomas  Chapman,  the  Chairman  of  Lloyd's,  was  a  "much- 
valued  friend"  with  whom  there  was  frequent,  kindly  inter- 
course, but  we  have  no  particulars  of  the  friendship  save 
that  he  obtained  a  situation  in  the  City  for  the  novelist's 
younger  brother,  Augustus.  But  the  interest  attaches  to 
him  that  he  was  by  many  declared  to  be  the  prototype  of 
Mr.  Dombey.  Curiously  enough,  that  statement  crops  up 
occasionally  in  these  days,  despite  the  fact  that  Forster  de- 
clares that  "few  things  could  be  more  absurd  or  unfounded." 

Charles  Reade,  we  are  told  by  the  Editors  of  Dickens's 
Letters  was  held  as  a  writer  and  as  a  friend  in  the  highest 
regard.  Of  the  friendship,  however,  we  have  no  record.  It 
was  not  until  fairly  late  in  Dickens's  life,  that  they  became 
acquainted — I  wonder  if  it  was  through  Wilkie  Collins.'' 
We  have  at  least  one  record  of  Reade  staying  at  Gadshill. 
"Charles  Reade  and  Wilkie  Collins  are  here,"  Dickens  wrote 
to  James  T.  Fields  in  September  1867,  "and  the  joke  of 
the  time  is  to  feel  my  pulse  when  I  appear  at  table,  and 
also  to  inveigle  innocent  messengers  to  come  over  to  the 
summer  house  ...  to  ask,  with  their  compliments,  how  I 
find  myself  wow."  In  1863,  Reade's  "Hard  Cash"  appeared 
in  All  the  Year  Round. 

There  is  one  little   story  of  Reade  which  may  well  be 


SOME  LESSER  FRIENDSHIPS         321 

retold  here.  It  is  related  by  Justin  McCarthy,  who  says 
that  an  American  friend  of  his  asked  Reade  to  go  to 
America  on  a  lecturing  tour.  Reade  expressed  himself  as 
wilhng,  but  asked  how  much  Dickens  had.  He  was  told, 
and  he  said  that  he  would  go  for  that  amount.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  Dickens's  success  had  been  something  be- 
yond all  comparison  or  competition,  but  Reade  insisted, 
and — the  tour  did  not  come  off.  Most  likely  this  was  just 
his  eccentric  way  of  refusing  to  undertake  a  tour.  Of 
course,  he  was  an  eccentric,  but  his  heart  was  sound  enough, 
and  so  he  was  exactly  the  sort  of  man  that  would  appeal 
to  Dickens. 

I  have  doubted  whether  Samuel  Carter  Hall  should  have 
a  place  in  the  Dickens  circle.  His  wife  was  certainly  counted 
a  friend,  but  I  am  pretty  sure  he  was  not,  though  he  was 
fairly  well  acquainted  with  the  novelist.  If  one  were  to 
sit  down  to  imagine  the  sort  of  man  that  Dickens  would 
not  like,  the  effort  would  cease  when  Hall  came  to  mind. 
Listen  to  Samuel  Carter  Hall  talking  about  Ainsworth's 
Jacic  Sheppard:  "It  became  a  sort  of  sacred  book  to 
the  ruffians,  demireps,  and  all  who  were  dishonestly  or  im- 
morally inclined  amongst  the  lowest  orders,  and  in  fact 
made  as  well  as  encouraged  thieves  and  other  moral  social 
pests  of  society.  I  hope  before  he  died  'he  repented  of  this 
evil.'  God  gave  him  time  in  which  to  do  so."  And  he  speaks 
of  Walter  Savage  Landor  as  "the  hoary  old  sinner."  In 
the  big  gallery  he  gives  us  of  the  great  men  he  has  known, 
he  has  not  an  unqualified  good  word  to  say  of  half  a  dozen. 
I  accept  unhesitatingly  the  assertion  that  he  was  the  pro- 
totype of  Pecksniff.  I  do  not  mean  that  Hall  was  a  rogue, 
or  a  humbug;  but  he  was  a  moral  man,  oh,  so  moral!  In 
all  mannerisms,  methods  of  speech,  in  all  the  touches  by 
which  we  know  our  Pecksniff,  that  character  is  a  perfect 
reflection  of  the  Hall  that  is  self-revealed  in  his  own  writ- 
ings.     Friend  of  Dickens !     The  thought  is  preposterous ! 

He  had  been  in  his  early  days  a  reporter  in  the  Gallery 
for  "The  British  Press,"  and  he  tells  us  that  "Now  and 
then  came  to  the  office  a  smart,  intelligent  active  lad  who 
brought  what  was  then  called,  and  is  still,  I  believe,  named 
*Penny-a-line  stuff' ;  that  is  to  say,  notices  of  accidents,  fires, 
police  reports,  such  as  escaped  the  more  regular  reporters. 


322  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

for  which  a  penny  a  printed  line  was  paid.  The  lad  to 
whom  I  refer  was  that  Charles  Dickens  whose  name  not 
very  long  afterwards  became  known  to  and  honoured  by 
the  half  of  humankind."  But  as  Hall  definitely  fixes  this 
at  1826,  when  Dickens  was  only  fourteen  years  old,  I  am 
like  the  Scotchman,  "I  ha'e  ma  doots."  Nevertheless,  the 
two  were  certainly  acquainted  in  early  days. 

Mrs.  Hall  was  a  good  woman,  with  none  of  her  husband's 
failings;  and  she  was  a  clever  woman,  too — a  clever  journal- 
ist and  novelist.  For  her  Dickens  certainly  did  entertain 
feelings  of  friendship,  and  perhaps — who  knows? — some- 
times tolerated  her  husband  for  her  sake.  She  often  visited 
his  house,  and  she  has  left  some  pleasing  impressions  of 
those  visits. 

Just  two  or  three  others  may  be  mentioned  with  whom 
there  were  hearty  friendships,  who  were  frequent  guests  at 
Dickens's  house.  Isambard  Brunei  is  classed  by  Forster 
with  several  with  whom  Dickens's  intercourse  was  intimate 
and  frequent,  and  we  know  that  he  was  often  a  welcome 
guest  at  the  novelist's  table.  With  him  we  may  place  Horace 
Twiss,  Mowbray  Morris,  John  Harwick,  Dr.  Quin,  and 
others. 

There  are  one  or  two  foreigners  who  may  be  mentioned 
in  this  place,  who  cannot  be  claimed  as  in  the  real  sense 
friends  of  Dickens,  but  whom  he  knew  well,  for  whose  work 
and  characters  he  had  high  esteem.  With  Giuseppe  Mazzini 
he  became  acquainted  through  giving  money  to  a  begging 
impostor  who  made  unauthorised  use  of  the  great  Italian's 
name.  They  became  pretty  well  known  to  each  other. 
Dickens,  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn,  had  a  great  regard 
for  Mazzini's  worth  and  character,  and  a  genuine  sympathy 
with  his  ideals.  When  the  Republic  of  Rome  fell  in  1849, 
Dickens  proved  his  sympathy  with  the  cause  very  em- 
phatically, by  penning  "an  appeal  to  the  English  People" 
on  behalf  of  the  refugees  who  came  to  this  country.  In 
the  previous  year,  ere  Mazzini  had  left  England  on  this 
unsuccessful  enterprise,  one  Sunday  evening  was  made 
memorable  (as  Forster  puts  it)  by  the  Itahan  taking  the 
novelist  and  his  friend  to  see  the  school  he  had  established 
in  Clerkenwell  for  Italian  organ  boys.     On  that  evening 


SOME  LESSER  FRIENDSHIPS         323 

Mazzlni  had  dined  at  Dickens's  house,  and  in  after  years  he 
was  many  times  a  guest  there. 

Alexander  Dumas  and  Victor  Hugo  were  but  acquaint- 
ances. Dickens  dined  with  the  former  in  Paris  in  IS-IT, 
as  well  as  with  Eugene  Sue,  and  other  famous  Frenchmen. 
In  that  same  year  he  was  received  by  Victor  Hugo  "with 
infinite  courtesy  and  grace."  Forster,  who  was  present, 
says  that  the  great  French  writer  "talked  of  his  childhood 
in  Spain,  and  of  his  father  having  been  Governor  of  the 
Tagus  in  Napoleon's  wars;  spoke  warmly  of  the  English 
people  and  their  literature.  .  .  .  To  Dickens  he  addressed 
very  charming  flattery,  in  the  best  taste;  and  my  friend 
long  remembered  the  enjoyment  of  that  evening." 

There  were  other  famous  Frenchmen  whom  Dickens  met, 
but  we  need  not  name  them — except,  perhaps  Alphonse 
Lamartine,  with  whom,  Forster  tells  us,  there  was  much 
friendly  intercourse  during  that  stay  in  Paris  in  1847.. 


CHAPTER  LXII 

A    BIG   GEOUP    OF   ARTISTS 

Prominent  in  the  Dickens  circle  was  a  big  group  of 
artists.  We  have  already  met  many  of  these;  let  us  now 
shake  hands  with  a  few  more. 

First,  there  is  Charles  Robert  Leslie.  For  a  good  many 
years  he  was  on  the  best  of  terms  with  Dickens.  He  was 
a  peculiarly  likeable  man,  and  the  noveHst  held  him  in  high 
regard.  Though  born  in  England,  he  spent  his  boyhood 
and  youth  in  America,  and  when  Dickens  was  stiU  in  his 
'teens,  he  had  illustrated  Washington  Irving,  and  it  was 
"Geoffrey  Crayon"  who  wrote  to  Dickens  urging  him  to 
make  the  artist's  acquaintance.  He  did  so,  and  when  he 
went  to  America  in  184-2  he  not  only  carried  with  him  a 
letter  from  Leshe  to  Irving,  but  also  went  out  of  his  way  to 
visit  some  of  the  artist's  relatives.  Leslie  was  a  frequent 
and  welcome  visitor  at  Dickens's  house,  but  he  lacked  social 
gifts,  and  his  imassuming  nature  kept  him  in  the  back- 
ground. He  was  often  one  of  the  company  on  the  occasions 
of  the  theatrical  performances,  and  if  he  took  no  active 
part  in  them,  he  has  left  us  the  best  picture  of  Dickens  as 
an  actor  that  we  possess — "Portrait  of  Charles  Dickens, 
Esq.,  in  the  character  of  Captain  Bobadil,"  painted  in 
1846. 

E.  M.  Ward  was  another  well-liked  friend,  and  a  frequent 
visitor  to  Dickens's  house.  The  first  mention  of  him  in 
connection  with  the  novelist  that  I  can  find  relates  to  the 
year  1851,  when  he  designed  the  card  of  membership  for 
the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art.  Three  years  later  Dickens 
sat  to  him  for  a  portrait — one  of  a  series  of  oil  sketches 
of  the  famous  literary  men  of  the  day  in  their  studies.  In 
this  latter  year  also  Ward  and  his  wife  visited  Boulogne 
and  Paris  with  the  novelist  and  his  wife.  In  a  London  news- 
324 


Charles  Dickkn.s 

(1859) 

From  a  Painting  by  W.  P.  Frith,  R.A. 


A  BIG   GROUP  OF  ARTISTS  325 

paper  the  artist's  widow  only  recently  recalled  her  memories 
of  that  trip. 

On  that  occasion  Mrs.  Ward  also  related  an  incident 
which  occurred  at  Dickens's  house  in  which  George  Cruik- 
shank  figured  unpleasantly.  "Cruikshank,"  she  wrote,  "had 
suddenly  developed  a  mania  for  total  abstinence,  and  seeing 
me  about  to  sip  a  glass  of  wine  snatched  the  glass  from  me, 
to  dash  it  on  the  floor.  I  had  never  seen  Dickens  so  angry. 
To  Cruikshank  he  said,  'How  dare  you  touch  Mrs.  Ward's 
glass?  It  is  an  unpardonable  liberty.  What  do  you  mean.'' 
Because  some  one  you  know  was  a  drunkard  for  forty  years, 
surely  it  is  not  for  you  to  object  to  an  innocent  glass  of 
sherry !'  Cruikshank,  one  of  the  largest-hearted  creatures 
in  the  world — but  given  to  acting  on  impulse — was  too 
taken  aback  to  reply,  and  he  disappeared  for  the  rest  of 
that  very  pleasant  evening." 

W.  P.  Frith  was  a  greatly  liked  friend.  He  was  a  young 
man  when  his  excellent  paintings  of  Dolly  Varden  brought 
about  an  acquaintance  with  Dickens,  whom  he  worshipped, 
as  did  most  of  the  young  men  of  the  time.  He  has  himself 
told  the  story  of  the  friendsliip  that  ensued,  and  to  his 
account  there  is  really  nothing  to  add.  From  his  earliest 
days  he  was  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  Dickens's  books,  and 
sought  for  a  subject  in  them  that  would  lend  itself  to  his 
brush,  but  he  was  held  back  by  the  ugliness  of  modern 
dress.  But  with  the  appearance  of  Barnahy  Rudge  he  dis- 
covered what  he  sought  in  the  person  of  Dolly  Varden.  He 
painted  her  in  a  variety  of  attitudes,  and  all  the  pictures 
found  ready  purchasers,  though  for  small  sums.  Then,  in 
November  1842,  he  received  the  following  letter  from 
Dolly's  creator: 

"My  dear  Sir, 

"I  shall  be  very  glad  if  you  will  do  me  the 
favour  to  paint  me  two  little  companion  pictures;  one 
a  Dolly  Varden  (whom  you  have  so  exquisitely  done 
already),  the  other  a  Kate  Nickleby." 

The  artist  was  transported  with  delight.  "Mother  and 
I,"  he  says,  "cried  over  that  letter,  and  the  wonder  is  that 
anything  is  left  of  it,  for  I  showed  it  to  every  friend  I 


326  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

had,  and  was  admired  and  envied  by  all."  He  set  to  work 
with  a  wall,  and  the  pictures  delighted  Dickens,  who  paid 
£40  for  the  pair,  which,  after  his  death,  fetched  1300 
guineas  at  Christie's. 

Henceforth  Frith  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  Dickens's 
friendshijD,  and  was  a  frequent  and  welcome  visitor  at  the 
novelist's  house.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  remained  almost 
an  idolater.  "The  reading  of  Dickens's  works,"  he  says, 
"has  no  doubt  engendered  a  love  for  the  writer  in  thousands 
of  hearts.  How  that  affection  would  have  been  increased 
could  his  readers  have  had  personal  knowledge  of  the  man 
can  only  be  known  to  those  who,  like  myself,  had  the  happi- 
ness of  his  intimate  acquaintance." 

In  1859  Forster  asked  Frith  to  paint  a  portrait  of 
Dickens  for  him.  He  had  made  the  suggestion  in  1854,  but 
Dickens  had  grown  a  moustache,  and  his  friend  had  decided 
to  wait:  "This  is  a  whim — the  fancy  will  pass.  We  will 
wait  till  the  hideous  disfigurement  is  removed."  The  fancy 
did  not  pass,  however,  and  the  moustache  was  followed  by 
a  beard,  and  at  last  Forster  gave  it  up  as  hopeless  and 
commissioned  the  picture.  It  was  while  Dickens  was  sitting 
for  this  that  he  told  Frith  that  a  Library  Edition  of  Ms 
works  was  to  be  published,  and  the  artist  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  be  an  illustrator.  Dickens  agreed,  and  Frith 
chose  Little  Dorrit,  for  wliich  he  did  two  small  pictures. 
Dickens  presented  him  with  a  complete  set  of  the  edition. 

Of  the  portrait  nothing  needs  to  be  said  here.  It  is  one 
of  the  best  known  of  all  the  portraits  of  the  novelist,  and  it 
is  interesting  because  it  is  the  first  showing  him  with  the 
beard.  Dickens  is  said  to  have  remarked  of  it  that  it  made 
him  look  as  if  he  had  just  heard  that  the  house  of  liis 
next-door  neighbour,  with  whom  he  was  on  bad  terms,  was 
on  fire !  But  he  liked  it,  all  the  same,  and  it  pleased  Forster, 
so  that  it   cannot  have  been  other  than  a  good  portrait. 

A  genuine,  though  not  very  intimate  friendship  was  that 
with  John  Everett  Millais,  the  lifelong  friend  of  Charles 
Allston  Collins,  brother  of  Wilkie,  and  later  Dickens's  son- 
in-law.  It  was  at  Colhns's  house  on  April  18,  1852,  that 
he  met  the  novelist. 

Dickens  must  have  had  some  uncomfortable  thoughts 
when  he  met  the  two  Pre-Raphaelites,  for  in  June  1850  he 


A  BIG   GROUP  OF  ARTISTS  327 

had  written  an  article  in  Household  Words  entitled  New 
Lamps  for  Old  Ones,  in  which  he  had  dealt  with  the  Pre- 
Raphaelites  with  special  reference  to  Millais's  picture,  "The 
Carpenter's  Shop."  It  is  worth  while  quoting  from  that 
article,  I  think: 

"You  will  have  the  goodness  to  discharge  from  your 
mind  all  Post-Raphael  ideas,  all  religious  aspirations, 
all  elevating  thoughts ;  all  tender,  awful,  sorrowful, 
ennobhng,  sacred,  graceful,  or  beautiful  associations, 
and  prepare  yourselves,  as  befits  such  a  subject — Pre- 
Raphaelly  considered — for  the  lowest  depths  of  what  is 
mean,  odious,  repulsive,  and  revolting. 

"You  behold  the  interior  of  a  carpenter's  shop.  In 
the  foreground  of  that  carpenter's  shop  is  a  hideous, 
wry-necked,  blubbering,  red-headed  boy,  in  a  bed-gown ; 
who  appears  to  have  received  a  poke  in  the  hand  from 
the  stick  of  another  boy  with  whom  he  has  been  play- 
ing in  an  adjacent  gutter,  and  to  be  holding  it  up  for 
the  contemplation  of  a  kneeling  woman,  so  horrible  in 
her  ugliness,  that  (supposing  it  were  possible  for  any 
human  creature  to  exist  for  a  moment  with  that  dis- 
located throat)  she  would  stand  out  from  the  rest  of 
the  company  as  a  Monster,  in  the  vilest  cabaret  in 
France,  o'  the  lowest  gin-shop  in  England.  Two 
almost  naked  carpenters,  master  and  journeyman, 
worthy  companions  of  this  agreeable  female,  are  work- 
ing at  their  trade;  a  boy,  with  some  small  flavour  of 
humanity  in  him,  is  entering  with  a  vessel  of  water; 
and  nobody  is  paying  any  attention  to  a  snuffy  old 
woman  who  seems  to  have  mistaken  that  shop  for  th^ 
tobacconist's  next  door,  and  to  be  hopelessly  waiting 
at  the  counter  to  be  served  with  half  an  ounce  of  her 
favourite  mixture.  Wherever  it  is  possible  to  express 
ugliness  of  feature,  limb,  or  attitude,  you  have  it  ex- 
pressed. Such  men  as  the  carpenters  might  be  un- 
dressed in  any  hospital  where  dirty  drunkards,  in  a 
high  state  of  varicose  veins,  are  received." 

This  is  very  interesting  because  of  the  facts  that  within 
a  few  months  of  the  publication  of  that  article  Dickens  was 


328  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

to  meet  the  painter  thus  abused,  and  to  form  a  friendship 
•with  him ;  that  within  ten  years  another  of  the  Brotherhood 
was  to  marry  his  daughter;  and  that  within  twenty  years 
he  was  to  select  a  Pre-Raphaehte  as  the  illustrator  of  his 
last  book.  For,  as  all  the  world  knows,  it  was  Dickens's 
wish  that  C.  A.  Colhns  should  illustrate  Edwin  Drood. 
Which  leads  to  another  interesting  fact;  namely,  that  when 
Collins  found  himself  unable,  on  account  of  ill-health,  to 
proceed  with  the  task,  a  young  man  named  Luke  Fildes 
was  selected  to  take  his  place  entirely  on  the  earnest  recom- 
mendation of  the  painter  of  "The  Carpenter's  Shop" ! 

In  1860 — the  year  that  she  became  Mrs.  Collins — 
Dickens's  daughter  served  Millais  for  a  model  for  one  of 
his  best  pictures,  "The  Black  Brunswicker."  Ten  years 
later  the  artist  did  a  picture,  not  so  well  known,  but  much 
more  interesting  from  the  present  point  of  view.  His  son, 
speaking  of  Dickens's  death,  says  that  Millais  had  "long 
entertained  a  tender  regard  for  the  novelist."  He  was  one 
of  the  privileged  few  admitted  to  the  dining-room  at  Gadshill 
while  the  great  man  lay  dead,  and  his  picture  of  Dickens 
on  his  death-bed  is  one  of  the  best  things  he  ever  did. 

He  intended  at  first,  we  are  told,  to  make  it  a  little  out- 
line drawing  only,  but  the  features  of  the  novelist  struck 
him  as  being  so  calm  and  beautiful  in  death  that  he  ended 
by  making  a  finished  portrait.  He  gave  it  to  his  old  friend's 
wife — Kate  Dickens. 

It  should  be  recorded  that  in  1886  Millais  did  an  ad- 
mirable picture  of  Little  Nell  and  her  Grandfather — so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  trace,  the  only  occasion  on  which  he 
went  to  the  Dickens's  books  for  inspiration. 

Holman  Hunt  was  well  acquainted  with  Dickens,  but  he 
was  not  so  much  a  friend  of  Dickens's  as  a  friend  of 
Dickens's  son-in-law.  For,  of  course,  he  was  a  lifelong  in- 
timate of  Charles  Collins,  at  whose  wedding  to  Kate  Dickens 
in  1860  he  was  a  guest. 

The  novelist  knew  the  great  Turner,  as  we  have  seen, 
but  the  only  meeting  of  the  pair  actually  recorded  was  that 
already  noted  in  our  chapter  on  Carlyle,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  dinner  prior  to  Dickens's  departure  for  Italy  in 
1844.  Another  famous  artist  who  was  often  a  guest  at 
Dickens's    table   was    Sir    Charles    Eastlake.      There   were 


u/':^i-       \- 


^^M..  \ 


_XJ:i 


mmmvmm 


Tom   Smart  and  the  Chair 
From  a  Sketch  for  "The  Pickwick  Papers"  by  John  Leech 


A  BIG  GROUP  OF  ARTISTS  329 

others,  too,  but  with  only  one  more  have  wc  any  real  in- 
terest. 

Luke  Fildes  was  but  a  young  man  when  he  first  knew 
the  novelist  with  whose  name  his  own  is  indissolubly  linked, 
and  he  knew  him  for  only  a  few  months,  but  in  that  time 
Dickens  had  learned  to  regard  liim  as  a  friend,  and  he  had 
learned  to  love  the  great  writer.  The  young  artist  had, 
of  course,  already  achieved  some  distinction  in  his  profession 
before  he  was  selected  to  illustrate  Edwin  Drood.  He  was 
twenty-five  years  old  then,  and  had  already  exhibited  at 
the  Royal  Academy,  whilst  he  was  known  as  a  magazine 
illustrator.  I  beUeve,  indeed,  that  it  was  the  excellence  of 
one  of  his  pictures  in  "The  Grapliic"  that  struck  Millais, 
who  went  to  Dickens  with  "I've  found  the  very  man  you 
want."  The  choice  was  the  happiest  Dickens  ever  made. 
Better  work  than  Fildes's  illustrations  to  Edwin  Drood  was 
never  done  for  any  of  his  books,  and  that  is  saying  much. 

Of  the  personal  relations  of  Dickens  and  his  last  illus- 
trator there  is  very  little  to  be  said.  They  had  known  one 
another  for  only  a  few  months  when  the  novelist  was  struck 
down.  That  sorrowful  event  occurred  on  a  Wednesday 
evening.  On  the  following  morning  Dickens  was  to  have 
gone  to  London  for  the  remainder  of  the  week,  and  he  was 
to  have  been  accompanied  on  his  return  by  the  young  artist, 
whose  visit  had  been  arranged  so  that  he  might  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  neighbourhood  in  which  most  of  the  scenes 
in  the  books  were  laid.  We  know  that  he  was  to  have  ac- 
companied the  novelist  to  Maidstone  gaol,  there  to  see  the 
condemned  cell,  with  a  view  to  a  subsequent  illustration. 

Dickens  had  formed  a  great  liking  for  the  artist,  and  had 
a  very  high  opinion  indeed  of  his  genius.  On  the  other  side 
there  was  that  admiration  and  reverence  which  Dickens  never 
failed  to  inspire  in  young  men.  A  few  years  ago  Sir  Luke 
Fildes  gave  expression  to  his  regard  for  the  novelist  in 
an  indignant  letter  he  wrote  to  "The  Times."  A  reviewer 
of  Andrew  Lang's  book.  The  Puzzle  of  Dickens's  Last 
Plot,  had  suggested  that  the  hints  dropped  by  Dickens  to 
Forster  and  to  members  of  his  family  as  to  the  plot, 
might  have  been  intentionally  misleading.  "I  know  Charles 
Dickens  was  very  anxious  that  his  secret  should  not  be 
guessed,"  wrote  Sir  Luke  in  reply,  "but  it  surprises  me  to 


330  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

read  that  he  could  be  thought  capable  of  the  deceit  so 
lightly  attributed  to  liim."  Then  he  related  how  Dickens 
had  told  him  in  confidence  that  Jasper  was  to  strangle 
Drood,  and  he  concluded: 

"I  was  impressed  by  his  earnestness,  as,  indeed,  I 
was  at  all  my  interviews  with  liim  .  .  .  and  it  is  a 
little  startling,  after  more  than  thirty-five  years  of 
profound  belief  in  the  nobility  of  character  and  sin- 
cerity of  Charles  Dickens,  to  be  told  now  that  he 
probably  was  more  or  less  of  a  humbug  on  such  occa- 


That  profound  belief  in  the  nobility  of  Dickens's  char- 
acter has  always  remained  with  Sir  Luke  Fildes. 

Immediately  after  Dickens's  death  Sir  Luke  painted  his 
famous  picture  "The  Empty  Chair,"  showing  the  study  at 
Gadshill  as  it  was  left  by  the  novelist  when  he  laid  dowTi 
his  pen  for  ever.  That  picture  was  engraved  on  wood,  and 
published  by  "The  Graphic"  in  December  1870.  Copies 
of  that  engraving  are  now  very  rare,  and  are  greatly  valued 
by  Dickensians.  Sir  Luke  also  did  a.  drawing  of  the  novel- 
ist's grave. 


CHAPTER  LXm 

HENEY  FOTHEBGILL  CHORLEY 

On  Juno  T,  1870,  Charles  Dickens  wrote  a  letter  to  Henry 
'Fotliergill  Chorlcy,  the  famous  musical  critic;  on  the  9th 
Chorley  heard  that  Dickens  was  ill;  on  the  10th  he  heard 
of  his  friend's  death.  "Chorley's  mental  prostration  when 
I  called  upon  liim  shortly  afterwards,"  says  his  biographer, 
Mr.  Henry  G.  Hewlett,  "was  painful  to  witness."  Writing 
to  Benson  Rathbone  at  the  time,  Chorley  said:  "God  bless 
you  for  your  kindness.  For  the  hour  I  am  best  alone,  .  .  . 
I  had  a  letter  from  poor  Mary.^  If  universal  sympathy  of 
the  warmest  kind  in  every  form  could  soften  the  agony  of 
such  a  trial  they  will  have  it  in  overflowing  measure,  but 
it  will  not  give  back  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  gifted  men 
I  have  ever  known,  whose  regard  for  me  was  one  of  those 
honours  which  make  amends  for  much  failure  and  disap- 
pointment. I  cannot  express  to  any  human  being  the  void 
this  will  make  for  me  to  my  dying  day." 

There  was  no  exaggeration  in  this,  for  Mary  Dickens 
tells  us:  "After  my  father's  death,  and  before  we  left  the 
dear  old  home,  Mr.  Chorley  wrote  and  asked  me  if  I  would 
send  him  a  branch  off  each  of  our  large  cedar  trees  in  re- 
membrance of  the  place.  My  friend,  and  his  dear  friend 
Mr.  Lehman,  saw  him  lying  calm  and  peaceful  in  his  coffin 
with  a  large  green  branch  on  each  side  of  him.  He  did 
not  understand  what  this  meant,  but  I  did,  and  was  much 
touched,  as,  of  course,  he  had  given  orders  that  these 
branches  should  be  laid  with  him  in  his  coffin.  So  a  piece 
of  the  place  he  loved  so  much  for  its  dear  master's  sake 
went  down  to  the  grave  with  him." 

Chorley  is  a  figure  calling  for  sympathy.    He  was  a  good 

man  who  went  through  life  lonely,  missing  love ;  he  suffered 

many  sorrows  and  many  trials,  and  he  found  in  Charles 

» Dickens'e  eldest  daughter,  Mamie. 

331 


332  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Dickens  a  very  true  friend  who  understood  and  sympathised. 
The  brightest  part  of  his  later  years,  Mr.  Hewlett  tells 
us,  was  that  which  was  illumined  by  liis  friendship  with 
Dickens.  They  became  intimate  in  1854,  but  they  had  met 
some  years  before  that.  During  the  last  few  years  of  the 
novelist's  life  they  were  in  constant  correspondence,  and  Mr. 
Hewlett  says:  "There  was  probably  no  other  man  of 
letters,  with  the  exception  of  Forster,  to  whom  his  confidence 
was  so  entirely  given.  Amid  many  differences  of  mental  and 
moral  constitution  there  was  one  salient  feature  in  common. 
In  Dickens  the  quality  of  punctuality^  as  Chorley  used  to 
describe  it,  was  manifest  in  the  minutest  particulars.  He 
himself  was  less  scrupulously  methodical;  but  in  all  essential 
points  his  thorough  trustworthiness  was  equally  prominent. 
.  .  .  Though  both  the  friends  were  probably  self-conscious 
of  possessing  this  characteristic,  it  seems  to  have  been  to 
each  the  object  of  special  admiration  in  the  other.  Both 
recognised  in  one  another  the  presence  of  generous  can- 
dor. .  .  ." 

Mr.  Hewlett  adds: 

"Such  other  relics  of  Dickens's  large  correspondence 
with  him  as  Chorley  has  preserved  .  .  .  attest  the 
thorough  sympathy  that  subsisted  between  the  two.  On 
no  occasion  of  his  life  when  he  needed  help  great  or 
small,  whether  consolation  under  affliction,  counsel  in 
the  settlement  of  a  dispute,  or  as  to  the  adaptation 
of  his  voice  to  a  lecture-room,  did  Dickens  fail  to 
render  it.  More  than  once  during  those  years,  when, 
bowed  down  by  weight  of  loneliness,  ill-health  and  sor- 
row, he  was  absorbed  in  moods  of  utter  depression  or 
driven  to  adopt  the  most  fatal  of  expedients  for  re- 
moving it,  the  clear  healthy  sense  of  Dickens  was  felt 
by  him  as  a  tower  of  strength;  and  it  was  doubtless 
a  remembrance  of  the  influence  extended  at  such  times 
that  dictated  the  language  of  a  grateful  bequest  to  his 
friend  as  one  by  whom  he  had  been  'greatly  helped.'  " 

The  bequest  referred  to  was  £50  for  a  ring.  Alas ! 
Dickens  had  gone  before  his  friend.  There  was  also  a  be- 
quest to  Mamie  Dickens  of  £200  a  year  for  life. 

We  have  seen  that  Dickens  and  Chorley  became  intimate 


HENRY  FOTHERGILL  CHORLEY     333 

in  1854.  Mamie  Dickens  tells  us  that  the  intimacy  was 
brought  about  by  their  working  together  to  obtain  a  pen- 
sion for  two  literary  friends.  Chorley  was  always  a  very 
welcome  guest  at  Gadshill.  Says  the  novelist's  eldest 
daughter : 

"People  who  were  in  the  habit  of  seeing  Mr.  Chorley 
only  in  London  would  hardly  have  known  him  at  Gads- 
hill,  I  think.  He  was  a  brighter  and  another  being 
altogether  there.  ...  I  believe  he  loved  my  father 
better  than  any  man  in  the  world;  was  grateful  to  him 
for  his  friendship,  and  truly  proud  of  possessing  it, 
which  he  certainly  did  to  a  very  large  amount.  My 
father  was  very  fond  of  him,  and  had  the  greatest 
respect  for  his  honest,  straightforward,  upright  and 
generous  character.  I  think,  and  am  very  glad  to 
think,  that  the  happiest  days  of  Mr.  Chorley's  life — 
his  later  years,  that  is  to  say — ^were  passed  at  Gads- 
hill." 

Chorley  at  Gadshill.  How  many  of  his  London  friends 
could  have  pictured  him  as  an  amateur  actor  convulsing 
an  audience  with  his  comicalities!  Yet  so  it  was — at 
Gadshill.  In  No.  15  of  "The  Gad's  Hill  Gazette"  we  read 
of  an  entertainment  "given  by  Messrs.  H.  and  E.  Dickens 
in  the  Theatre  Royal  Club  Room."  The  farce,  The  Rival 
Volunteers,  was  played;  Mr.  H.  Dickens  "managed"  the 
orchestra,  Mr.  E,  Dickens  was  stage  manager,  and  "C. 
Dickens,  Esq.,  as  an  aged  gentleman,  and  H.  F.  Chorley, 
Esq.,  as  a  Turk,  were  intensely  comic,  and  between  all  the 
scenes  the  laughter  (caused  by  these  gentlemen)  was  in- 
cessant." 

If  Dickens  was  whole-hearted  in  his  encouragement  of 
Chorley  in  his  literary  work,  he,  in  his  turn,  valued  very 
highly  indeed  his  friend's  opinion  of  his  own  books.  Chorley 
reviewed  in  the  "Athenaeum"  Martin  Chuzzlewit,  David  Cop- 
per field,  A  Christmas  Carol,  Bleak  House,  and  Our  Mutual 
Friend.  In  regard  to  his  review  of  the  last-named  book, 
Dickens  wrote  to  him:  "I  have  seen  the  *Athena3um,'  and 
most  heartily  and  earnestly  thank  you.  Trust  me,  there 
is  nothing  I  could  have  wished  away,  and  all  that  I  read 
there  affects  and  delights  me." 


CHAPTER  LXiy 


WILKIE  COLLINS 


The  great  friend  o£  Dickens's  later  years  was  William 
Wilkie  Collins,  for  whom  he  entertained  a  regard  that  was 
quite  excejational  and,  to  me,  somewhat  difficult  of  explana- 
tion. It  was  not  merely  a  friendship  in  the  ordinary  sense; 
he  came  under  ColHns's  spell  to  a  remarkable  degree,  and 
one  of  the  most  astonishing  of  literary  facts  is  the  influence 
which  the  younger  man  exercised  over  the  art  of  one  who 
was  famous  and  the  acknowledged  first  of  the  living  novelists 
before  he  himself  had  left  school.  It  is  true,  of  course, 
that  in  so  far  as  Dickens  owed  anything  to  anybody,  he 
was  chiefly  indebted  to  Fielding  and  Smollett,  but  as  he 
drew  towards  the  close  of  his  life  the  influence  of  those  two 
masters  gave  way  to  that  of  a  young  writer  who  was  his 
inferior  in  every  respect  save  one,  and  never  succeeded  in 
crossing  the  line  which  divides  the  great  writers  from  the 
first-class  writers.  Dickens  recognised  ColHns's  wonderful 
skill  at  plot  construction  and  magnified  its  value  and  im- 
portance. It  was  the  spell  of  Collins,  undoubtedly,  that 
prompted  him  to  endeavour  in  Edwin  Drood  to  prove  him- 
self an  expert  mystery  unraveller,  and  it  is  equally  beyond 
question  that  "if  that  book  had  been  finished  it  would  have 
shown  that  the  pupil  was  at  least  the  equal  of  his  teacher," 
But  even  so,  can  we  honestly  say  that  we  are  glad  of 
Collins's  influence  as  revealed  by  this  book.?  Frankly,  I 
see  no  cause  for  gratitude  to  the  author  of  The  Woman 
in  White.  I  am  not  blind,  I  hope,  to  the  art  of  this  book, 
but  I  see  little  more  than  suggestions  of  those  qualities  that 
made  Dickens  famous  and  loved.  Edwin  Drood  is  a  great 
fragment,  but  it  is  not  the  Dickens  that  will  live — the 
Dickens  of  this  book  is  not  the  great  character  drawer,  the 
great  en j  oyer  of  life,  the  great  friend  of  humanity  that  is 
334 


WILKIE  COLLINS  335 

revealed  in  every  one  of  his  other  books,  from  Pickwick  to 
Our  Mutual  Friend. 

It  may  be  that  I  misjudge  Collins,  but  I  confess  that  I 
find  it  at  least  as  difficult  to  account  for  the  affection  in 
which  he  was  held  by  Dickens.  We  are  told  by  one  writer 
that  he  was  "liighly  gifted  socially,"  and  we  are  forced  to 
believe  that  there  was  more  in  the  man  than  any  writer  has 
revealed,  yet  all  my  reading  has  failed  to  make  me  believe 
that  there  was  that  lovablcness  about  him  that  there  was 
about  the  other  members  of  the  inner  Dickens  circle ;  it  has 
only  gone,  indeed,  to  confirm  the  opinion  expressed  by  Mr. 
Percy  Fitzgerald:  "I  always  tliink  that  Dickens's  noble, 
unselfish,  generous  nature  expanded  itself  somewhat  vainly 
on  such  a  character,  certainly  not  endowed  with  anything 
likely  to  respond  to  such  affection.  Not  that  I  knew  him 
sufficiently  to  judge  him,  but  he  had  not  the  warm  and 
rather  romantic  tone  of  feeling  that  Boz  looked  for." 

Still,  there  is  the  fact;  Dickens  had  a  genuine  affection 
for  Wilkie  Collins.  "You  know,"  he  wrote,  "I  am  not  in 
the  habit  of  making  professions,  but  I  have  so  strong  an 
interest  in  you,  and  so  true  a  regard  for  you,  that  nothing 
can  come  amiss  in  the  way  of  information  as  to  your  well- 
doing." 

It  was  through  Egg  that  the  two  novelists  first  became 
acquainted.  It  was  in  connection  with  the  performance  of 
Not  So  Bad  as  we  Seem  at  Devonshire  House.  Forster 
tells  us  that  Collins  became  "for  all  the  rest  of  the  life  of 
Dickens,  one  of  liis  dearest  and  most  valued  friends."  He 
went  with  the  company  on  tour,  and  in  addition  to  Smart, 
in  Lytton's  comedy,  played  James,  in  Used  Up,  and 
Lithers  in  Mr.  Nightingale's  Diary.  His  love  for  the 
stage  must  have  been  almost  as  great  as  Dickens's  and 
Mark  Lemon's.  They  acted  together  many  times,  two  of 
Collins's  plays  were  specially  written  for  and  produced  at 
Tavistock  House,  and  they  collaborated  in  the  dramatisa- 
tion of  No  Thoroughfare,  the  last  of  the  famous  Christmas 
numbers  of  All  the  Year  Round,  of  which  they  were  joint 
authors. 

Let  us  deal  with  these  stage  associations  first.  In  1855 
the  first  of  the  children's  plays  was  produced  at  Tavistock 
House.      This    was   Fortu/nio.      In   the    same   year    Collins 


836  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

wrote  The  Lighthouse,  which  was  produced  on  June  19, 
and  repeated  at  Campden  House  in  July  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Bournemouth  Sanatorium  for  Consumptive  Patients. 
ColHns  himself  played  the  second  Light-keeper. 

Two  years  later  came  The  Frozen  Deep.  Again 
Dickens  wrote  the  Prologue,  which  was  recited  by  Forster, 
but  the  original  manuscript  and  the  prompt-book  reveal 
that  he  also  contributed  much  to  the  play  itself.  The  manu- 
script was  sold  by  auction  in  1890  and  realised  300  guineas. 
To  it  was  appended  the  following  note  in  Collins's  hand- 
writing: "Mr.  Dickens  himself  played  the  principal  part 
and  played  it  with  a  truth,  vigour,  and  pathos  never  to  be 
forgotten  by  those  who  were  fortunate  enough  to  witness 
it.  .  .  .  At  Manchester  this  play  was  twice  performed,  on  ° 
the  second  evening  before  3000  people.  This  was,  I  think, 
the  finest  of  all  its  representations.  .  .  .  Dickens  surpassed 
himself.    He  literally  electrified  the  audience." 

The  two  novelists  had  close  literary,  as  well  as  stage, 
associations.  Few  wrote  more  frequently  for  Household 
Words  and  All  the  Year  Round  than  Wilkie  Collins,  whilst  he 
collaborated  with  Dickens  several  times,  more  especially  in 
connection  with  the  Christmas  numbers.  His  first  story  for 
Household  Words  was  "Sister  Rose,"  which  appeared  in 
April  and  May  1855,  and  which  Dickens  described  as  "an  ex- 
cellent story,  charmingly  written,  and  showing  everywhere  an 
amount  of  pains  and  study  in  respect  of  the  art  of  doing 
such  things  that  I  see  mighty  seldom."  It  may  be  that  here 
is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  Dickens's  admiration  for 
Collins.  The  young  writer  possessed  qualities  of  hard  work 
and  thoroughness,  and  few  things  appealed  to  Dickens  more 
than  "thorough-going  earnestness."  In  1856,  "After  Dark" 
and  "The  Diary  of  Anne  Rodway"  appeared  in  Household 
Words,  and  in  the  following  year  came  "The  Dead  Secret." 

In  September  1857  Dickens  and  Collins  made  a  tour  to 
the  North  of  England  together  for  the  purpose  of  writing 
The  Lazy  Tour  of  Two  Idle  Apprentices.  "I  have  arranged 
with  Collins,"  wrote  Dickens  to  Forster,  "that  he  and  I 
will  start  next  Monday  on  a  ten  or  twelve  days'  expedition 
to  out-of-the-way  places,  to  do  (in  inns  and  coast-corners) 
a  little  tour  in  search  of  an  article  and  in  avoidance  of 
railroads.   .  .   .  Our  decision  is  for  a  foray  upon  the  fells 


WILKIE  COLLINS  337 

of  Cumberland,  I  having  discovered  in  the  books  some 
promising  moors  and  bleak  places  thereabout."  And  so  they 
went  to  the  Lake  District,  but  their  trip  was  spoiled  by 
a  mishap  which  befell  ColUns,  who  sprained  his  ankle  during 
the  descent  of  Carrick  Fell. 

They  completed  their  tour,  however,  and  their  account 
of  it  duly  appeared  in  Household  Words.  The  Lazy  Tour 
is  an  unsatisfactory  piece  of  work,  and  I  never  read  it  but 
I  am  glad  that  the  desire  that  Dickens  cherished  for  some 
time,  that  he  and  Collins  should  collaborate  in  the  writing 
of  a  novel,  was  never  realised.  It  is  astonishing  how  Dickens, 
in  this  book,  allowed  liis  own  personality  to  sink  almost 
out  of  sight. 

In  1858  Household  Words  came  to  an  end,  and  in  the 
following  year  All  the  Year  Round  was  started.  Its  first 
serial  was  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities,  and  tliis  was  followed  by 
The  Woman  in  White,  which  commenced  on  November 
26.  This,  of  course,  was  the  book  that  finally  established 
Collins  as  a  novelist,  and  it  also  did  much  to  establish  the 
magazine  in  which  it  appeared.  No  Name  ran  as  a  serial 
in  1861,  and  of  this  Dickens  wrote:  "It  is  as  far  before 
and  beyond  The  Woman  in  White  as  that  was  beyond  the 
common  level  of  fiction  writing.  Later  came  Armadale, 
and  finally  The  Moonstone.  And  by  this  time  Dickens 
was  tiring  of  Collins's  style — tiring  of  the  constant  creaking 
of  machinery.  In  a  letter  respecting  The  Woman  in 
White,  he  had  put  his  finger  right  on  his  friend's  weak- 
ness, the  weakness  which  keeps  CoUins  out  of  the  first  rank. 
He  had  written: 

"I  seem  to  have  noticed,  here  and  there,  that  the 
great  pains  you  take  express  themselves  a  trifle  too 
much,  and  you  know  that  I  always  contest  your  dis- 
position to  give  an  audience  credit  for  nothing.  .  .  . 
Perhaps  I  express  my  meaning  best  when  I  say  that 
the  three  people  who  write  the  narratives  in  these 
proofs  have  a  Dissective  property  in  common,  which 
is  essentially  not  theirs  but  yours ;  and  that  my  own 
effort  would  be  to  strike  more  of  wliat  is  got  that  way 
out  of  tliem  by  collision  with  one  another,  and  by  the 
working  of  the  story." 


338  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

And  now  h^  wrote  io  a  friend,  "I  quite  agree  with  you 
about  The  Moonstone.  The  construction  is  wearisome 
beyond  endurance,  and  there  is  a  vein  of  obstinate  conceit 
in  it  that  makes  enemies  of  readers." 

ColHns  had  a  hand  in  nearly  all  the  Christmas  numbers. 
He  first  appeared  as  the  Fourth  Traveller  in  The  Seven 
Poor  Travellers,  1854.  In  the  following  year  he  assisted 
with  The  Holly-Tree  Inn,  and  in  1856  he  wrote  John  Stead- 
man's  Account  of  the  Wreck  of  the  Golden  Mary,  and  also 
The  Deliverance.  In  1857  he  wrote  the  second  chapter 
of  The  Perils  of  Certain  English  Prisoners,  Dickens  writing 
the  remainder  of  the  number,  and  in  the  last  Household 
Words  Christmas  number — A  House  to  Let — he  was  the 
author  of  Over  the  Way  and  Trottle^s  Report,  whilst 
he  and  Dickens  collaborated  in  the  final  chapter,  Let  at 
Last. 

His  contributions  to  the  All  the  Year  Round  Christmas 
numbers  were  to  follow:  To  The  Haunted  House  in  1859 
The  Ghost  in  the  Cupboard  Room;  to  A  Message  from 
the  Sea,  1860,  The  Seafaring  Man,  and,  in  collaboration 
with  Dickens,  The  Money  and  The  Restitution;  to  Tom 
Tiddler's  Ground  in  1861  Picking  up  Waifs  and  Strays; 
and  he  collaborated  with  Dickens  in  the  last  of  the  series — 
No  Thoroughfare — in  1867.  Wlien  the  friends  were  writing 
A  Message  from  the  Sea,  they  made  a  special  trip  to  Corn- 
wall and  Devon  in  search  of  local  colour.  It  should  be 
noted  that  they  evidently  intended  to  dramatise  this  story, 
because  there  is  in  the  British  Museum  a  small  brochure 
whose  title-page  runs  thus: 

A  MESSAGE  FROM  THE  SEA 
A  Drama  in  Three  Acts 

by 

Chables  Dickens 

and 
WiLKiE  Collins 

An  Outline  of  the  Plot 

London. — Published  by  G.  Holsworth 

At  the  office  of  "All  the  Year  Round,'.! 

Wellington  Street,  Strand, 

1861. 


WILKIE   COLLINS  339 

This  manuscript  traces  the  plot  and  action  of  Acts  1 
and  2,  and  then  "Act  the  Third  passes  in  Tregarthen's 
cottage  at  Steepways  and  the  story  is  unravelled  as  in  the 
Christmas  number  of  'AH  the  Year  Round,'  concluding  the 
scene  in  Chapter  V,  'The  Retribution,'  and  ending  with  the 
villagers  all  coming  in  and  clieering  Captain  Jorgan  on  his 
departure  for  America  as  heartily  as  they  execrated  him 
in  Act  1."     A  list  of  the  characters  is  also  given. 

And  now  let  us  glance  briefly  at  the  personal  relations 
of  these  two  novelists.  Strangely  enough,  there  is  very  little 
material,  though  from  1851  they  were  so  intimate.  They 
spent  many  holidays  together.  Their  first  trip  was  in  1853, 
when  they  went  to  Switzerland  and  Italy  accompanied  by 
Egg  and  had  a  good  time.  In  February  1855  they  made 
a  short  trip  to  Paris.  Exactly  a  year  later  they  were  in 
Paris  again,  and  in  the  summer  of  1856,  when  the  Dickens 
family  were  living  at  the  Villa  de  Moulineaux,  Boulogne, 
Collins  joined  them,  and  for  many  weeks  took  up  his  quarters 
in  a  little  cottage  in  the  grounds.  In  1859  Dickens  spent 
a  short  holiday  with  Collins  and  his  brother  at  Broadstairs. 
But,  though  they  spent  all  these  holidays  together,  there 
is  no  evidence  in  Dickens's  letters  of  that  abandonment  to 
pleasure-making  that  appears  in  letters  respecting  tours 
with  other  friends.  There  are  very  few  of  those  merry, 
school-boyish  letters  to  Collins  such  as  Dickens  wrote  to 
many  other  friends,  his  letters  to  this  friend  reflecting  a 
restraint  which  is  very  rare  in  his  correspondence.  There 
is  plenty  of  friendship,  of  course,  but  he  rarely  "lets  him- 
self go"  as  in  his  letters  to  other  friends.  Very  often  he 
protests  his  friendship,  however,  and  once  he  proves  his 
sincerity.     Here  is  that  letter: 

"Frank  Beard  has  been  here  this  evening  .  .  .  and 
has  told  me  that  you  are  not  at  all  well,  and  how  he 
has  given  you  sometliing  which  he  hopes  and  believes 
will  bring  you  round.  It  is  not  to  convey  this  in- 
significant piece  of  intelligence,  or  to  tell  you  how 
anxious  I  am  that  you  should  come  up  with  a  wet 
sheet  and  a  flowing  sail  (as  we  say  at  sea  when  we 
are  not  sick),  that  I  write.  It  is  simply  to  say  what 
follows,  wliich  I  hope  may  save  jou  some  mental  un- 


340  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

easiness.  For  I  was  stricken  HI  when  I  was  doing 
'Bleak  House,'  and  I  shall  not  easily  forget  what  I 
suffered  under  the  fear  of  not  being  able  to  come  up 
to  time. 

"Dismiss  that  fear  (if  you  have  it)  altogether  from 
your  mind.  Write  to  me  at  Paris  at  any  moment, 
and  say  you  are  unequal  to  your  work,  and  want  me, 
and  I  will  come  to  London  straight  and  do  your  work. 
I  am  quite  confident  that,  with  your  notes  and  a  few 
words  of  explanation,  I  could  take  it  up  at  any  time 
•  and  do  it.  Absurdly  unnecessarj'-  to  say  that  it  would 
be  a  makeshift !  But  I  could  do  it  at  a  pinch,  so 
like  you  as  that  no  one  should  find  out  the  difference. 
Don't  make  much  of  this  offer  in  your  mind;  it  is 
nothing,  except  to  ease  it.  If  you  should  want  help, 
I  am  as  safe  as  the  bank.  The  trouble  would  be  nothing 
to  me,  and  the  triumph  of  overcoming  a  difficulty  great. 
Think  it  a  Christmas  number,  an  'Idle  Apprentice,'  a 
'Lighthouse,'  a  'Frozen  Deep,'  I  am  as  ready  as  in 
any  of  these  cases  to  strike  in  and  hammer  the  hot  iron 
out. 

"You  won't  want  me.  You  will  be  well  (and  thank- 
less!) in  no  time.  But  there  I  am;  and  I  hope  that 
the  knowledge  may  be  a  comfort  to  you.  Call  me, 
and  I  come." 

The  help  was  not  needed,  but  the  offer  was  made  in  good 
faith,  and  is  as  good  evidence  as  one  could  need  of  the 
regard  that  Dickens  had  for  Wilkie  Collins. 


CHArTER  LXV 

DICKENS    AS    AN    EDITOR HIS    FRIENDSHIP    WITH    W.    H.    WILLS 

Now  we  come  to  a  famous — I  had  almost  said  historic — 
group  of  friends — those  who  were  associated  with  the  novel- 
ist mainly,  if  not  entirely,  through  Household  Words  and 
All  tlie  Year  Round.  A  great  deal  has  been  written  about 
Dickens  as  an  Editor,  and  all  the  writers  agree  that  in  that 
capacity  he  had  altogether  exceptional  qualities.  His  out- 
standing quality  was  his — shall  we  call  it  knack? — of  dis- 
covering talent.  Perhaps  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  he 
"discovered"  Henry  Morley,  for  Morley  had  already  at- 
tracted Forster's  attention,  and  it  was  Forster  who  recom- 
mended him  to  Dickens ;  nor  did  he  "discover"  Charles 
Knight,  for  Knight  was  famous  long  before  Household 
Words  came  into  being;  he  scarcely  "discovered"  Mrs. 
Lynn  Linton,  for  she  had  established  a  fairly  good  reputa- 
tion before  he  gave  her  a  better  and  wider  public  than  she 
had  had  hitherto ;  Harriet  Martineau  was  famous  before 
Pickwick  was  written.  But  George  Augustus  Sala  owed  his 
first  chance  to  Dickens  and  Household  Words;  Percy  Fitz- 
gerald, J.  C.  Parkinson,  W.  Moy  Thomas,  Charles  Kent, 
John  Hollingshead — to  name  but  a  few  of  the  best  known 
— owed  their  first  recognition  and  subsequent  success  to 
Dickens's  ability  to  "spot"  talent,  and  to  his  encourage- 
ment. As  "Dickens's  young  men"  they  came  to  be  known, 
and  as  "Dickens's  young  men"  some  of  them  will  be  remem- 
bered for  long  years  to  come. 

And  when  we  consider  Dickens  as  an  Editor  we  quickly 
realise  one  of  the  great  differences  between  modem  journal- 
ism and  that  of  half  a  century  ago.  Contributions  to 
Household  Words  and  All  the  Year  Round  were,  almost 
without  exception,  unsigned,  and  contributors  had  only  the 
341 


342  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

merit  of  their  work  to  stand  upon.  The  magazines  them- 
selves, likewise,  had  to  stand  or  fall  upon  the  intrinsic 
merit  of  their  contents.  To-day  the  prospectus  of  a  new 
magazine  invariably  contains  a  list  of  names  of  well-known 
writers  who  have  promised  to  contribute.  It  does  not  matter 
though  some  of  them  "slap  off"  anything  anyhoAv;  it  does 
not  matter  though  some  of  their  contributions  would  have 
no  chance  of  acceptance  if  submitted  anonymously.  The 
Editor  relies  upon  their  names.  And  if  it  be  urged  that 
these  people  "had  to  make  their  names,"  it  can  be  answered 
soundly  enough  that  in  these  days  of  commercialised  journal- 
ism "names"  may  be  easily  made. 

But  all  this  by  the  way.  Another  noteworthy  fact — and 
the  fact  with  wliich  we  are  primarily  concerned — in  regard 
to  Dickens  as  an  Editor  is  the  personal  relations  that  ex- 
isted between  him  and  his  staff,  some  of  whom  became  much 
loved  personal  friends.  I  do  not  propose  to  write  of  his 
relations  with  them  all ;  some  of  them  could  not  legitimately 
be  described  as  of  the  Dickens  circle.  But  a  few  of  them 
undoubtedly  were  very  welcome  members  of  what  may  be 
termed  the  later  Dickens  circle.  With  most  of  these  we  may 
deal  quite  briefly;  a  few  are  entitled  to  chapters  to  them- 
selves. 

First  of  all  there  is  W.  H.  Wills,  sub-editor,  assistant 
editor  of  both  papers.  There  were  few  men  for  whom 
Dickens  had  a  higher  regard.  Their  association  originally 
was  entirely  of  a  business  nature,  but  Wills  proved  himself 
so  trustworthy,  and  showed  such  a  regard  for  his  employer, 
that  a  friendship  developed,  and  in  the  last  years  of  his 
life  there  was  no  one,  Forster  excepted,  in  whom  Dickens 
placed  more  trust  and  confidence.  Their  acquaintance  be- 
gan with  the  birth  of  the  "Daily  News"  in  1846,  but  nearly 
ten  3^ears  before  that  there  had  been  an  association.  For 
in  1837  Wills  sent  two  articles  to  "Bentley's  Miscellany," 
and  Dickens,  as  Editor,  accepted  one  and  invited  further 
contributions. 

Wills  was  a  member  of  the  original  staff  of  the  "Daily 
News."  He  was  Dickens's  right  hand,  and  acted  as  the 
Editor's  secretary.  Dickens  occupied  the  editorial  chair 
only  three  weeks,  but  in  that  short  time  he  had  realised 
Wills's  reliability,  and  shortly  after  liis  resignation  we  find 


W.  H.  Wills 
From  a   Drawing   in   Possession   o/   the    Proprietors   of   "Punch' 


DICKENS  AS  AN  EDITOR  343 

him  writing:  "I  miss  you  a  great  deal  more  than  I  miss 
the  paper."     And  Wills   continued  to  act  as  his  almoner. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  when  Forster  recom- 
mended Wills  as  sub-editor  of  Household  Words  Dickens 
should  have  acquiesced  gladly,  and  never  was  a  happier 
appointment  made.  Dickens  was  supreme,  and  exercised 
a  very  full  supervision,  but  all  details  were  left  to  Wills, 
in  whom  the  utmost  reliance  was  placed,  and  during  the 
reading  tours  the  control  was  necessarily  almost  entirely 
in  his  hands.  They  worked  together,  we  are  told  by  the 
Editors  of  The  Letters  of  Charles  Dickens,  "on  terms  of 
the  most  perfect  mutual  understanding,  confidence,  and 
affectionate  regard,  until  Mr.  Wills's  health  made  it  neces- 
sary for  him  to  retire  from  the  work  in  1868."  As  time 
passed,  Dickens  leaned  on  Wills  more  and  more.  He  found 
in  his  assistant,  not  only  a  good  journalist,  but  a  com- 
petent man  of  business,  a  man  of  perception  to  whom  it 
was  necessary  but  to  indicate  a  wish  in  the  vaguest  way  to 
see  that  wish  carried  into  effect;  and  a  tactful  man  capable 
of  dealing  with  all  sorts  of  contributors  and  would-be  con- 
tributors, and  offending  none.  Wills,  indeed,  was  a  positive 
godsend  to  Dickens. 

Presently  the  novelist  had  an  opportunity  of  showing  his 
appreciation  of  his  assistant's  loyalty.  In  1856  Forster 
relinquished  his  share  in  Household  Words  to  Dickens,  who 
gave  a  portion  of  it  to  Wills,  to  whom,  in  answer  to  a 
letter  of  thanks,  he  wrote: 

"I  have  just  received  your  letter  and  am  truly 
pleased  to  know  that  you  are  gratified  by  what  I  have 
done  respecting  the  share.  I  hoped  you  would  be; 
and  in  this  and  in  all  other  ways  in  which  I  can  ever 
testify  my  affection  for  you,  and  my  sense  of  the 
value  of  your  friendship  and  support,  I  merely  gratify 
myself  by  doing  what  you  more  than  merit." 

Years  before  this,  however,  he  had  recommended  Wills 
to  the  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts  as  confidential  secretary, 
in  which  post  his  duty  was  to  see  that  her  charitable  gifts 
were  properly  distributed.  He  had  also  obtained  for  him 
the  post  of  secretary  to  the  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art. 


344  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

He  had  invited  Wills  to  take  part  in  the  performance  on 
behalf  of  the  Guild  in  1851. 

Wills  declined.  "I  will  not  bore  you,"  he  wrote,  "with 
all  my  reasons  against  it.  One  will  suffice,  for  that  is  a 
strong  one:  there  will  be,  I  understand,  not  a  few  provin- 
cial performances ;  and  under  present  arrangements  I  tliink 
it  would  be  extremely  inexpedient  for  us  both  to  be  absent 
from  H.  W.  together  and  as  often  as  the  performances  Anil 
require."  None  the  less,  the  objection  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  so  very  strong,  for  we  read  that  he  was  "almost 
invariably  one  of  the  party  in  the  provincial  tour." 

Mrs.  Wills,  however,  was  associated  with  Dickens  in  some 
of  his  Tavistock  House  theatricals.  In  April  1856  Dickens 
wrote  to  her  husband  as  follows : 

"My  dear  Wills, 

Christmas. 
"Collins  and  I  have  a  mighty  original  notion 
(mine  in  the  beginning)  for  another  play  at  Tavistock 
House.  I  propose  opening  on  Twelfth  Night  the 
theatrical  season  at  that  great  establishment.  But 
now  a  tremendous  question.     Is 

Mrs.  Willis! 
game  to  do  a  Scotch  housekeeper  in  a  supposed  coun- 
try house  with  Mary,  Katey,  Georgina,  etc?  If  she 
can  screw  her  courage  up  to  saying  'Yes,'  that  country 
house  opens  the  piece  in  a  singular  way,  and  that 
Scotch  housekeeper's  part  shall  flow  from  the  present 
pen.  If  she  says  *No'  (but  she  won't)  no  Scotch 
housekeeper  can.^  The  Tavistock  House  season 
of  four  nights  pauses  for  a  reply.  Scotch  song  (new 
and  original)  of  Scotch  housekeeper  would  pervade  the 
piece. 

YOTJ 

had  better  pause  for  breath." 

Mrs.  Wills  did  consent,  and  played  Nurse  Esther  in 
The  Frozen  Deep. 

1  Mrs.  Wills  was  a  daughter  of  Robert  Chambers,  and  Dickens  was  design- 
ing to  give  her  an  appropriate  part  as  a  Scotchwoman. 


DICKENS  AS   AN  EDITOIl  345 

In  1859  when  Household  Words  came  to  an  end,  and  All 
the  Year  Round  was  born,  Dickens  and  Wills  became  part- 
ners, the  former  as  to  three-quarters,  and  the  latter  as  to 
one  quarter,  in  profits  and  losses.  It  was  agreed  that 
Dickens  should  have  £500  a  year  as  editor,  and  that  Wills 
should  act  as  general  manager,  with  control,  subject  to 
Dickens,  of  the  commercial  department,  and  also  as  sub- 
editor, at  a  salary  of  £420.  The  same  old  harmonious  re- 
lations continued.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  letter  written 
by  Dickens  on  January  2,  1862,  from  Birmingham  station: 

"Being  stranded  here  for  an  hour  ...  I  write  to 
you. 

"Firstly  to  reciprocate  all  your  cordial  and  affec- 
tionate wishes  for  the  New  Year,  and  to  express  my 
earnest  hope  that  we  may  go  on  through  many  years 
to  come  as  we  have  through  many  years  that  are  gone. 
And  I  think  we  can  say  that  we  doubt  whether  any 
two  men  can  have  gone  on  more  happily  and  smoothly, 
or  with  greater  trust  and  confidence  in  one  another. 

"A  little  packet  will  come  to  you  .  .  .  almost  at  the 
same  time,  I  think,  as  this  note. 

"The  packet  will  contain  a  claret  jug.  I  hope  it 
is  a  pretty  thing  in  itself  for  your  table,  and  I  know 
that  3'ou  and  Mrs.  Wills  will  like  it  none  the  worse 
because  it  comes  from  me. 

"It  is  not  made  of  perishable  material,  and  is  so 
far  expressive  of  our  friendship.  I  have  had  your 
name  and  mine  set  upon  it  in  token  of  our  many  years 
of  mutual  reliance  and  trustfulness.  It  will  never  be 
so  full  of  wine  as  it  is  to-day  of  affectionate  regard." 

The  business  association  of  the  two  men  ended  with 
WUls's  retirement  in  1868,  but  the  personal  friendship 
lasted  until  Dickens's  death. 

This  is  an  appropriate  place  in  which  to  deal  with 
Dickens's  friendship  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick  Lehmann. 
Mrs.  Lehmann  was  a  niece  of  Mrs.  Wills,  and  it  was  Wills 
who  introduced  her  and  her  husband  to  Dickens  at  Shef- 
field during  the  "splendid  strolling"  on  behalf  of  the  Guild 
of  Literature  and  Art.     Their  son,  Mr.  R.  C.  Lehmann, 


346  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

tells  us  that  between  his  father  and  Dickens  there  was  a 
special  bond  of  intimacy,  and  this  is  undoubtedly  true.  We 
have,  indeed,  Dickens's  word  for  it,  for  in  a  letter  to 
Lytton  in  1861  he  wrote:  "I  am  anxious  to  let  you  know 
that  Mr.  Frederick  Lehmann  who  is  coming  down  to  Kneb- 
worth  to  see  you  ...  is  a  particular  friend  of  mine,  for 
whom  I  have  a  very  high  and  warm  regard."  The  Leh- 
manns  were  very  frequent  visitors  at  Tavistock  House  and 
at  Gadshill,  and  they  were  with  Dickens  in  Paris  in  1862, 
doing  "a  course  of  restaurants"  with  him.  In  Lehmann's 
unfinished  reminiscences  we  find  many  references  to  social 
meetings  with  the  novelist,  particularly  to  Sunday  walks. 
With  the  family  he  was  always  at  his  best,  for  they  were 
valued  friends  between  whom  and  himself  there  undoubtedly 
existed  a  very  special  sympathy  and  understanding. 


CHAPTER  LXVI 


EDMUND  YATES 


Greatest  favourite  of  all  the  band  of  "Dickens's  young 
men"  was  Edmund  Yates.  We  are  told  by  the  Editors  of 
Dickens's  Letters  that  for  Yates  he  had  always  an  affec- 
tionate regard,  and  we  know  how  his  esteem  for  this  young 
man  led  him  into  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  acts  in  his 
life — the  quarrel  with  Thackeray.  I  cannot  but  think  that 
this  regard  for  a  somewhat  coxcombish  young  man  arose 
more  out  of  his  sentiment  for  a  day  that  was  dead  than 
out  of  any  specially  appealing  qualities  in  Yates's  char- 
acter. Yates  was  a  capable  journalist,  a  successful  novel- 
ist and  lecturer,  and  a  self-reliant  man  of  the  world. 
These  were  all  qualities  sure  of  recognition  from  Dickens 
in  any  young  man,  but  they  were  possessed  by  other  mem- 
bers of  the  band.  Dickens  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
specially  inclined  towards  Yates  because  of  memories  of 
the  days  when  Yates's  father  and  mother  were  to  him  al- 
most gods  to  be  worsliipped.  For  this  young  man's  parents 
were  bright  lights  of  the  English  stage  when  Dickens  was 
beginning  his  career,  and  Yates  senior  had  appeared  in 
adaptations  of  Dickens's  books.  Forster  tells  us  that 
though  once  at  the  Surrey  Theatre  the  novelist  lay  on  the 
floor  of  his  box  almost  throughout  a  performance  of  Oliver 
Twist,  he  was  able  to  "sit  through  NicTdehy,  and  to  see 
merit  in  parts  of  the  representation.  Mr.  Yates  had  a 
sufficiently  humorous  meaning  in  his  wildest  extravagance." 

It  is  quite  clear  that  this  implied  suggestion  that 
Dickens  was  able  more  or  less  to  tolerate  Yates's  perform- 
ances is  not  at  all  fair  to  the  actor  from  the  following 
letter  quoted  by  the  latter's  son,  and  written  by  Dickens 
at  the  time  of  the  Nichlehy  performance: 

"My  dear  Sir, 

"I  am  very  glad  indeed  that  NicJdehy  is  doing 
so  well.     You  are  right  about  the  popularity  of  the 
347 


348  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

work,  for  its  sale  has  left  even  that  of  Pickwick  far 
behind.  My  general  objections  to  the  adaptation  of 
any  unfinished  work  of  mine  simply  is  that  being  badly 
done,  and  worse  acted,  it  tends  to  vulgarise  the  char- 
acters, to  destroy  or  weaken  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  see  them  the  impressions  I  have,  endeavored  to 
create,  and  consequently  to  lessen  the  interest  in  their 
progress.  No  such  objection  can  exist  for  a  moment 
when  the  thing  is  so  admirably  done  as  you  have  done 
it  in  tliis  instance.  I  feel  it  an  act  of  common  justice 
after  seeing  the  piece  to  withdraw  all  objection  to  its 
publication,  and  to  sa}-^  tliis  much  to  the  parties  in- 
terested in  it  without  reserve.  If  you  can  spare  us 
a  private  box  for  next  Tuesday  I  shall  be  much 
obliged  to  you.  If  it  be  on  the  stage,  so  much  the 
better,  as  I  shall  be  really  glad  of  an  opportunity 
to  tell  Mrs.  Keeley  and  O.  Smith  how  much  I  appre- 
ciate their  Smike  and  Ne-R-man  Noggs.  I  put  you  out 
of  the  question  altogether,  for  that  glorious  Mantalini 
is  beyond  all  praise." 

In  regard  to  Mrs.  Yates,  Dickens  had  even  more  pleas- 
ing memories.  When  she  died  he  wrote  to  her  son:  "You 
knew  what  a  loving  and  faithful  remembrance  I  always 
had  of  your  mother  as  part  of  my  youth — no  more  cap- 
able of  restoration  than  my  youth  itself.  All  the  womanly 
goodness,  grace,  and  beauty  of  my  drama  went  out  with 
her.  To  the  last  I  never  could  hear  her  voice  without 
emotion.  I  think  of  her  as  a  beautiful  part  of  my  own 
youth,  and  this  dream  that  we  are  aU  dreaming  seems  to 
darken." 

No  wonder,  then,  that  when,  in  1854,  Yates,  with  that 
self-assurance  which  ever  characterised  him,  introduced 
himself  to  Dickens  as  his  parents'  son,  he  was  given  a 
hearty  welcome.  He  was  then  only  twenty  years  old.  For 
the  sake  of  his  parents  Dickens  was  kindly  disposed  to- 
wards liim  from  the  beginning,  but,  as  we  have  already 
noted,  he  had  qualities  which  in  a  young  man  always  ap- 
pealed  to    the    novelist — punctuality    and    reliability 

In  1856  Yates  made  his  first  appearance  in  Household 
Words   with    a    short   story    entitled   "A   Fearful   Night," 


EDMUND  YATES  349 

and  thenceforward  he  was  a  frequent  contributor.  Then 
came  that  wretched  trouble  with  the  Garrick  Club  over  his 
insult  to  Thackeray.  In  connection  with  this  it  is  due 
to  Yates  to  say  that  if  Dickens  was  prepared  to  break 
with  Thackeray  for  his  sake,  Yates,  in  return,  worshipped 
Dickens.  Exactly  what  Dickens  thought  of  his  young 
admirer  is  shown  in  a  couple  of  letters.  The  first  was 
written  in  response  to  an  application  for  a  reference  when 
Yates  was  applying  for  an  editorship: 

"You  cannot  overstate  my  recommendation  of  you 
for  the  editorship  described  in  the  advertisement ;  nor 
can  you  easily  exaggerate  the  thorough  knowledge  of 
your  qualifications  on  which  such  recommendation  is 
founded.  A  man  even  of  your  quickness  and  ready 
knowledge  would  be  useless  in  such  an  office  unless 
he  added  to  liis  natural  and  acquired  parts,  habits  of 
business,  punctuality,  steadiness  and  zeal.  I  so 
thoroughly  rely  on  you  in  all  these  respects,  and  I 
have  had  so  much  experience  of  ji^ou  in  connection  with 
them  that  perhaps  the  committee  may  deem  my  testi- 
mony in  your  behalf  of  some  unusual  worth.  In  any 
way  you  think  best,  make  it  known  to  them,  and  in 
every  way  rely  on  my  help  if  you  can  show  me  further 
how  to  help." 

The  second  was  written  by  Messrs.  Fields,  Osgood,  & 
Co.,  the  famous  American  publishers,  with  whom  Dickens's 
personal  and  business   relations   were   so   intimate: 

"My  particular  friend,  Mr.  Edmund  Yates,  has 
asked  me  if  I  will  give  him  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
you,  advancing — if  I  can — his  desire  of  disposing  of 
early  proofs  for  publication  in  America  of  a  new 
serial  novel  he  is  writing  called  'Nobody's  Fortune.' 
Mr.  Yates  is  the  most  punctual  and  reliable  of  men 
in  the  execution  of  his  work.  I  have  had  the  plan  of 
his  story  before  me,  and  have  advised  him  upon  it, 
and  have  no  doubt  of  its  being  of  great  promise  and 
turning  upon  a  capital  set  of  incidents.  It  has  not 
been  offered  in  America  as  yet,  I  am  assured." 


CHAPTER  LXVII 


PEECY    FITZGERALD 


A  VERY  special  favourite  among  "Dickens's  young  men" 
was  Percy  Fitzgerald,  whom  we  are  all  so  glad  to  have 
still  with  us.  Dickens  had  a  strong  personal  hking  for 
him.  This  is  proved  by  the  novelist's  own  letters.  For 
instance,  in  1867,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  mother: 
"In  regard  to  jour  son  ...  let  me  honestly  assure  you 
that  my  editorial  existence  has  had  no  pleasanter  incident 
in  it  than  its  having  made  me  acquainted  with  his  very 
great  abilities,  and  having  made  us  private  friends.  It  is 
impossible  that  he  can  have  a  more  interested  or  appre- 
ciative reader  than  he  has  in  me,  and  no  man  ever  sets 
foot  in  my  house  whom  I  better  like  to  see  there." 

It  has  been  of  later  years  rather  the  fasliion  among  a 
certain  class  of  critics  to  be  very  "superior"  at  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald's expense,  to  sneer  at  his  enthusiastic  hero-worship. 
I  am  sure  ]\Ir.  Fitzgerald  will  forgive  me  for  recalling  one 
little  incident  that  goes  to  show  that  he  is  not  at  aU  the 
ridiculous  undiscriminating  Dickensian  that  these  very 
superior  critics  would  have  us  believe  liim  to  be.  Some 
3'^ears  ago  he  was  showing  me  some  of  liis  treasures,  and 
he  picked  up  a  note-book  that  had  once  belonged  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott.  "That  is  one  of  my  most  valued  posses- 
sions," he  said,  "because  Scott  was  a  great  man — a  very 
great  man — a  much  greater  man  than  Dickens,  don't  you 
think?"  I  confess  that  I  was  surprised  at  the  time,  for 
only  recently  he  had  published  his  "Life  of  Charles 
Dickens,  as  revealed  in  his  writings,"  in  which  his  adula- 
tion of  Boz  had  certainly  been  extravagant,  and  had 
brought  down  upon  his  head  the  ridicule  of  many  critics. 
But,  in  very  truth,  anybody  who  knows  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
knows  perfectly  well  that  he  is  a  man  of  wide  tastes,  a 
350 


PERCY  FITZGERALD  351 

very  competent  judge  indeed,  with  a  sound  idea  of  values. 
His  published  works  of  themselves  prove  the  catholicity  of 
his  interests. 

But  Dickens  was  the  literary  hero  of  his  youth  and 
prime ;  he  imbibed  Pickwick  in  his  boyhood ;  when  he  was  a 
boy  and  when  he  was  a  young  man,  Dickens  was  the  glori- 
ous planet  round  wliich  contemporary  stars  revolved. 
When  he  came  to  manhood's  estate,  he  found  himself  first 
a  welcome  contributor  to  the  great  man's  magazine,  and 
later  a  welcome  guest  at  his  house.  How  should  we 
wonder  that  the  glamour  of  Dickens  has  remained  with 
him  all  his  life? 

Young  Fitzgerald's  introduction  to  Household  Words 
was  brought  about  by  Forster — to  whom  he  had  rendered 
some  service — in  a  characteristic  way.  He  wrote  a  short 
story  and  submitted  it  to  the  "harbitrary  cove,"  who 
marched  off  with  it  to  Wellington  Street,  and  put  it  down 
saying  that  they  must  see  to  it,  "that  there  should  be  no 
official  subterfuges,  circulars,  or  the  like;  it  MUST  be 
considered  and  READ,  mark  you!"  It  was  accepted,  and 
its  author  was  forthwith  engaged  to  help  with  the  next 
Christmas  number,  The  Wreck  of  the  Golden  Mary.  That 
first  short  story  was  entitled  "Down  at  the  Red  Grange," 
and  appeared  in  the  number  dated  September  20,  1856. 
For  the  next  tliirteen  years  Fitzgerald  was  one  of  the  most 
regular  contributors  to  Household  Words  and  All  the  Year 
Round. 

Dickens  early  formed  a  high  opinion  of  his  abilities,  but 
he  soon  discovered  a  tendency  which,  I  fear,  has  never 
been  completely  shaken  off.  The  young  man  was  apt  to 
have  too  many  irons  in  the  fire  at  one  time,  and  thus  to 
prejudice  the  quality  of  liis  work.  He  had  a  tendency  to 
carelessness,  too,  and  that  tendency  has  never  been  shaken 
off  either.  Dickens  early  recognised  this,  and  wrote  to  the 
young  man: 

"You  make  me  very  uneasy  on  the  subject  of  your 
new  long  story  here,  and  by  sowing  your  name  broad- 
cast in  so  many  fields  at  one  time.  Just  as  you  are 
coming  on  with  us  you  have  another  serial  in  progress 
in  the  'Gentleman's  Mag.,'  and  another  announced  in 


352  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

*Once  a  Week,'  and  so  far  as  I  know  the  art  we  both 
profess,  it  cannot  be  reasonably  pursued  in  this  way. 
I  think  the  short  story  you  are  now  finishing  in  these 
pages  obviously  marked  by  traces  of  great  haste 
and  small  consideration,  and  a  long  story  similarly 
blemished  would  really  do  the  publication  irreparable 
harm." 

The  young  man  wrote,  he  tells  us,  a  penitent  letter,  and 
his  hero  replied:  "Your  explanation  is  (as  it  naturally 
would  be,  being  yours)  manly  and  honest,  and  I  am  both 
satisfied  and  hopeful."  Mr.  Fitzgerald  has  also  recorded 
the  receipt  of  the  following  letter:  "For  my  sake — if  not 
for  Heaven's — do,  I  entreat  you,  look  over  your  manu- 
script before  sending  it  to  the  printer.  Its  condition  in- 
volves us  all  in  hopeless  confusion  and  really  occasions 
great  unnecessary  cost." 

But,  these  little  weaknesses  aside,  Percy  Fitzgerald  was 
an  able  man,  and  a  reliable  man  withal,  devoid  of  the 
Bohemianism  of  Sala  or  Home,  and  there  must  have  been 
something  very  winning  about  him  in  those  days,  too.  It 
is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  he  was  a  very  welcome 
guest  at  Gadshill.  He  had  been  a  contributor  to  House- 
hold Words  some  time  before  he  met  the  novelist  person- 
ally. The  meeting  took  place  in  Dublin,  where  Dickens  had 
been  reading.  Fitzgerald  went  to  the  railway  station 
when  the  novelist  was  leaving,  and  when  the  great  man 
arrived,  "screwing  up  my  courage,  I  went  up  to  him,  and 
said,  rather  nervously,  'I  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  Dickens, 

but  my  name  is  '     The  keen  e^^es  were  looking  with 

a  sort  of  distorted  anxiety — this  was  some  intruder;  but 
when  he  heard  the  name  he  changed  in  an  instant.  A  warm 
and  hearty  shake  of  the  hand — up  and  down — from  him. 
*And  how  do  you  do?^  he  said.     'Very  glad  to  see  you.'  " 

Thus  began  a  friendsliip  which  lasted  until  the  end. 
Soon  came  an  invitation  to  Gadshill:  "If  you  should  be 
in  England  before  this" — July  4,  1863 — "I  should  be  de- 
lighted to  see  you  here.  It  is  a  very  pretty  country,  not 
thirty  miles  from  London ;  and  if  you  could  spare  a  day 
or  two  for  its  fine  walks,  I  and  my  two  latest  dogs,  a  St. 
Bernard  and  a  bloodhound,  would  be  charmed  with  your 


PERCY  FITZGERALD  353 

company  as  one  of  ourselves."  The  reference  to  the  dogs 
reminds  us  that  Mr.  Fitzgerald  once  wrote  an  article  on 
Dickens's  dogs  which  greatly  pleased  the  novelist,  and  he 
gave  still  more  pleasure  by  the  gift  of  an  Irish  blood- 
hound which  received  the  name  of  Sultan,  and  is  immortal- 
ised both  in  Forster's  book  and  in  several  of  the  novelist's 
own  letters. 

In  1865  Fitzgerald  formed  one  of  the  party  that  ac- 
companied the  novelist  to  Knebworth  on  the  occasion  of 
the  formal  opening  of  the  almshouses  that  had  been  erected 
on  Lytton's  estate  in  connection  with  the  Guild  of  Liter- 
ature and  Art,  and  "On  the  return  to  London,"  he  says, 
"Dickens  took  the  party  to  Household  Words  offices, 
where  a  dainty  little  repast  was  set  out.  Then  on  to 
Gravesend,  and  thence  to  Gadshill."  In  the  following  year 
Lytton  wrote  to  Dickens  in  praise  of  a  novel  by  Fitz- 
gerald, and  Dickens  replied:  "Fitzgerald  will  be  so  proud 
of  your  opinion  of  his  'Mrs.  Tillotson,'^  and  will  (I  know) 
derive  such  great  encouragement  from  it,  that  I  have 
faithfully  quoted  it,  word  for  word,  and  sent  it  on  to  him 
in  Ireland.  He  is  a  very  clever  fellow  (you  may  remem- 
ber, perhaps,  that  I  brought  liim  to  Knebworth  on  the 
Guild  day),  and  has  charming  sisters,  and  an  excellent 
position."  Those  sisters  were  as  welcome  as  he  was  at 
Gadshill.  Their  brother  has  again  and  again  told  of  his 
visits  to  Dickens's  home,  and  there  is  no  need  for  any 
detailed  reference  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  through  all 
the  years  they  have  been  a  glorious  memory  with  him. 
It  ought  to  be  added  that  he  more  than  once  accompanied 
Dickens  on  his  reading  tours,  and  in  Ireland  they  had 
many  happy  hours  together. 

Of  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  writing  for  Household  Words  and 
All  the  Year  Round  very  little  need  be  said.  He  con- 
tributed to  more  than  one  Christmas  number,  he  wrote 
many  short  stories  and  articles,  he  was  sent  on  a  special 
commission  to  Rome,  and  his  serial  stories  included 
"Never  Forgotten,"  "The  Second  Mrs.  Tillotson,"  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made,  and  "Fatal  Zero," 
of  which  Dickens  wrote  to  Forster,  "I  think  you  will  find 

i"The  Second  Mrs.  Tillotson,"  which  Lytton  thought  was  better  than 
?' Felix  Holt.". 


S54  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

*Fatal  Zero'  a  very  curious  bit  of  mental  development, 
deepening  as  the  story  goes  on  into  a  picture  not  more 
startling  than  true."  His  last  story  for  All  the  Year 
Round  was  "Doctor's  Mixture." 

Since  Dickens's  death  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  affection  for  the 
memory  of  his  master  and  friend  has  deepened  with  every 
year,  and  in  a  score  of  volumes  he  has  raised  a  very 
sincere  monument.  More  than  that,  he  was  the  founder 
of  the  Boz  Club,  and  the  first  President  of  the  Dickens 
Fellowsliip;  he  never  tires  of  bearing  testimony  to  his  love 
for  Dickens,  and  in  London  and  elsewhere  are  busts, 
modelled  by  his  own  hands,  loving  tributes  to  a  cherished 
friendship.  If  hero-worship  be  a  virtue — and  who  shall 
say  that  it  is  not.'' — Percy  Fitzgerald  possesses  it  in 
abundance.  His  loving  care  for  Dickens's  memory,  and 
his  pride  in  the  recollection  of  his  friendship  with  the 
great  man  are  sometimes  laughed  at,  but  only  by  those 
who  do  not  know  him.  Those  who  know  him  know  that 
in  very  truth  there  is  something  sacred  in  it  all. 


CHAPTER  LXVIII 


CHARLES     KENT 


As  I  have  studied  Dickens's  relations  with  his  friends 
I  have  M'ondered  sometimes  wiiich  of  all  the  number  loved 
him  best.  The  "Dickens  Circle"  was  a  big  one,  indeed, 
but  not  in  the  case  of  one  of  its  members  is  there  a  mere 
regard.  Always  affection  reigned  supreme.  Forster,  the 
friend  of  longest  standing  and  of  the  greatest  intimacy, 
loved  him  more  deeply — more  emotionally — than  he — John 
Bull  that  he  was — would  have  admitted;  Maclise  loved 
him;  so  did  Stanfield,  and  Talfourd,  and  Landor,  and 
Carlyle,  and  Hunt;  Townshend  and  Chorley  worshipped 
him;  the  younger  men — Hollmgshead,  Fitzgerald,  Payn, 
Yates — regarded  him  as  a  superman.  But — putting 
Forster  aside — I  do  verily  believe  that  the  most  devoted  of 
them  all  was  Charles  Kent,  of  whom  it  may  be  said,  Avithout 
exaggeration  at  all,  that  he  would  have  given  his  life  for 
the  novelist.  "This  zealous  friend,"  says  the  Editors  of 
Dickens's  Letters;  "I  doubt  if  I  have  a  more  genial  reader 
in  the  world,"  wrote  Dickens  to  him.  To  Kent  Dickens  was 
something  more  than  human ;  something  almost  divine,  and 
in  his  old  age,  if  any  one  in  his  presence  uttered  a  dispara- 
ging word  of  the  novelist,  or  even  of  his  works,  the  tears 
would  course  down  his  face. 

Kent's  regard  for  Dickens  did  not  commence  with  their 
personal  acquaintance.  He  had  worshipped  from  afar  off, 
when  the  idea  of  a  personal  friendship  with  the  novelist  did 
not  enter  his  wildest  dreams.  It  was,  indeed,  liis  veneration 
for  Dickens  that  "made  them  first  acquaint."  He  wrote  a 
notice  of  Domhey  and  Son  for  the  "Sun,"  on  whose  staff 
he  was,  and  the  notice  so  touched  Dickens  that  he  wrote 
to  the  Editor  asking  him  to  thank  the  writer  of  the  review 
on  his  behalf.  Kent,  we  are  told,  "replied  in  his  proper 
355 


356  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

person,  and  from  that  time  dates  a  close  friendship,  and 
constant  correspondence."  Upon  receipt  of  Kent's  letter, 
Dickens  wrote :  "Pray  let  me  repeat  to  you  personally  what 
I  expressed  in  my  former  note,  and  allow  me  to  assure  you, 
as  an  illustration  of  my  sincerity,  that  I  have  never  ad- 
dressed a  similar  communication  to  anybody,  except  on  one 
occasion." 

From  that  time  dated  a  friendship  wliich  partook  of  hero- 
worship  unadulterated  on  one  side,  and,  on  the  other,  of 
an  unaffected  appreciation  of  that  hero-worship,  coupled 
with  a  sincere  recognition  of  a  simply  good  character,  and 
high  literary  gifts. 

When  Kent  began  to  write  for  Household  Words  he  must 
have  felt  curiously  at  home,  for  he  and  Blanchard  Jerrold 
had  some  years  previously  rented  the  offices  from  which  that 
paper  was  issued  as  the  officers  of  the  "Astrologer,"  a  com- 
petitor with  Zadkiel.  While  he  was  still  writing  for  All  the 
Year  Round  he  became  the  proprietor  of  the  "Sun,"  and 
Dickens  wrote  him  a  letter  expressive  of  liis  friendship: 

"I  meant  to  have  written  instantly  on  the  appearance 
of  your  paper  in  its  beautiful  freshness,  to  congratulate 
you  on  its  handsome  appearance,  and  to  send  you  my 
heartiest  good  wishes  for  its  thriving  and  prosperous 
career.  Through  a  mistake  of  the  postman's  that  re- 
markable letter  has  been  tesselated  into  the  Infernal 
Pavement  instead  of  being  delivered  in  the  Strand. 

"We  have  been  looking  and  waiting  for  your  being 
well  enough  to  propose  yourself  for  a  mouthful  of  fresh 
air.     Are  you  well  enough  to  come  on  Sunday.-*  .. 

The  invitation  conveyed  in  this  letter  is  a  reminder  that 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  Dickens  welcomed  Charles 
Kent  to  Gadshill  more  heartily  than  he  welcomed  most 
people. 

Kent  was  one  of  the  guests  at  the  wedding  of  Kate 
Dickens  to  Charles  Collins,  and  it  may  be  remarked  that  he 
is  mentioned  more  than  once  in  the  "Gad's  Hill  Gazette," 
to  which  previous  reference  has  been  made. 

In  1867,  when  Dickens  was  going  to  America  for  his 
reading  tour,  the  suggestion  of  a  send-off  banquet  was  en- 


CHARLES  KENT  357 

thusiasticallj  taken  up  by  Kent,  who  undertook  all  the 
arrangements.  Two  years  after  Dickens's  death  Kent  pub- 
lished "Charles  Dickens  as  a  Reader."  This  was  a  work 
undertaken  with  the  novelist's  express  sanction,  as  the  fol- 
lowing proves : 

"Everything  that  I  can  let  you  have  in  aid  of  the 
proposed  record  (which,  of  course,  would  be  far  more 
agreeable  to  me  if  done  by  you  than  by  any  other  hand) 
shall  be  at  your  service.  Dolby  has  all  the  figures  re- 
lating to  America,  and  you  shall  have  for  reference  the 
books  which  I  read." 

That  letter  was  written  on  March  26,  1870.  Less  than 
three  months  afterwards  Dickens  wrote  his  last  letter.  It 
was  to  Kent: 

Wednesday,  eighth  June  1870. 

"My  dear  Kent, 

"To-morrow  is  a  very  bad  day  for  me  to  make 
a  call,  as,  in  addition  to  my  usual  office  business,  I 
have  a  mass  of  records  to  settle  with  Wills.  But  I  hope 
I  may  be  ready  for  you  at  3  o'clock.  If  I  can't  be — 
why,  then  I  shan't  be. 

"You  must  really  get  rid  of  those  Opal  enjoyments. 
They  are  too  overpowering. 

"  'These  violent  delights  have  violent  ends.'  I  think 
it  was  a  father  of  your  church  who  made  the  wise 
remark  to  a  young  gentleman  who  got  up  early  (or 
stayed  out  late)  at  Verona? 

"Ever  affectionately, 

"C.  D." 

Little  more  than  an  hour  after  the  ink  had  dried  on  that 
letter,  Dickens  was  stricken  unto  death.  The  letter  was 
subsequently  presented  by  Kent  to  the  British  Museum. 


CHAPTER  LXIX 


HENEY   MORLEY 


Next  to  Wills,  the  most  important  member  of  the  House- 
hold Words  circle  was  Henry  Morley,  whom  Mr.  Percy  Fitz- 
gerald describes  as  "a  sort  of  deputy  sub-editor  of  immense 
use ;  in  fact,  a  kind  of  handy  man  ...  a  man  of  all  work." 
He  was  a  reliable,  conscientious,  level-headed  man — "a 
thorouglily  fine,  earnest  fellow,"  as  Dickens  declared,  whose 
work  for  Household  Words  and  for  All  the  Year  Round 
was  of  immense  value.  He  was  not  a  journalist  in  the  sense 
that  Sala  was,  or  Hollingshead  or  Moy  Thomas,  but  he 
was  a  sound  man,  well  read  and  well  educated,  of  a  serious 
turn  of  mind,  and  he  wrote  ably  and  attractively  on  certain 
topics.  To  Wills  he  was  an  invaluable  man,  and  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald tells  us  that  he  could  co-operate  with  any  writer  who 
wanted  help. 

Morley  had  a  varied  career.  He  started  by  practising 
medicine,  and  it  was  his  articles  on  hj'gienic  subjects,  writ- 
ten in  a  novel  and  quaintl}'  humorous  way,  that  attracted 
Dickens.  But,  through  no  fault  of  liis  own,  he  made  no  head- 
way in  his  profession  and  became  a  schoolmaster,  making, 
by  dint  of  hard  and  conscientious  work,  a  success  of  private 
schools  at  Manchester  and  Liverpool.  Whilst  engaged  in 
this  work  he  wrote  some  articles  on  hygienic  subjects  for 
the  "Journal  of  Public  Health."  In  1849,  the  "Examiner," 
at  that  time  edited  by  Forster,  reprinted  one  of  these 
articles,  and  this  led  to  his  contributing  to  that  famous 
newspaper.  This,  in  its  turn,  led  to  an  invitation  to  write 
for  Household  Words,  and  this  again  to  an  offer  of  a  per- 
manent position  on  the  staff  of  that  paper. 

Morley's  associations  with  Dickens  were  not  very  intimate. 
Dickens  had  a 'high  opinion  of  him  as  a  high-minded,  caa- 
scientious  man,  describing  him  as  one  "whom  one  cannot  see 
without  knowing  to  be  a  straightforward,  earnest  man,"  but 
they  were  very  different  in  temperament.  It  is  difficult  to 
358 


HENRY  MORLEY  359 

imagine  Morley  convulsed  with  laughter  at  children's 
theatricals,  or  enjoying  a  rollicking  evening  at  the  Star  and 
Garter.  I  doubt  if  he  ever  really  understood  Dickens, 
though  he  certainly  liked  him. 

It  was  on  April  5,  1850,  that  Morley  received  a  letter 
from  Forster  enclosing  one  from  Dickens  requesting  that 
he  would  write  on  sanitary  matters  for  Household  Words, 
and  we  find  the  recipient  writing  to  his  future  wife :  "More 
compliment.  If  we  b<;gin  so  how  shall  we  stop?  Well,  I 
must  put  my  knuckles  into  my  brains  and  root  about. 
That's  a  fact.  I  do  not  care  very  much  for  Household 
Words,  but  this  will  lead  to  my  making  Dickens'  acquaint- 
ance, and  as  I  respect  his  labours  heartily,  I  shall  be  glad 
of  that."  He  was  glad,  too,  to  have  a  second  pulpit  from 
which  to  preach  health  to  the  people.  Two  days  later  he 
wrote  his  first  article  for  Household  Words.  It  was  on 
City  Abuses,  and  was  entitled  "Wild  Sports  in  the  City," 
and  announcing  its  completion,  he  wrote  of  his  admiration 
for  Dickens,  and  of  his  belief  that  the  novelist  would  take 
a  place  in  literature  next  to  Fielding.  But  as  to  Dickens's 
qualifications  as  an  Editor  he  was  less  confident: 

"But  he  has  no  sound  literary  taste ;  his  own  genius, 
brilliant  as  it  is,  appears  often  in  a  dress  that  shows 
that  he  has  more  heart  and  wit  than  critical  refine- 
ment. So  I  doubt  whether  he  is  the  right  man  to 
edit  a  journal  of  literary  mark,  though  it  would  be 
full  of  warm  and  human  sympatliies  and  contain  first- 
rate  writing  from  his  own  pen.  Nous  verrons.  I  shall 
be  heartily  rejoiced  if  my  fears  prove  unfounded." 

As  all  the  world  knows,  they  did. 

Morley  entered  into  his  work  for  Household  Words  witH 
all  enthusiasm,  and  continued  to  write  frequently  for  the 
paper  until  in  June  1851  he  was  surprised  to  receive  a  letter 
from  Dickens  offering  him  a  position  on  the  Household 
Words  staff  at  five  guineas  a  week.  It  was  a  gratifying 
offer,  but  not  one  to  be  lightly  accepted,  for  he  had  just 
succeeded  in  building  up  his  school.  He  wrote  to  Forster, 
the  sure  friend  of  almost  every  literary  man  of  liis  time, 
and  the  reply  was:  "Mr.  Dickens  is  the  kindest  and  most 
honourable  of  men;  and  in  whatever  you  do  for  him  vou 


360  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

will  be  able  to  reckon  steadfastly  on  his  earnest  acknowledg- 
ment and  liberal  desire  to  make  it  more  and  more  worth  j'our 
doing." 

The  offer  was  accepted,  and  Morley  came  to  London, 
where  he  quickly  justified  the  good  opinion  and  high  ex- 
pectations that  had  been  formed  of  liim.  We  have  it  on 
Wills's  authority  that  he  "was  the  best  fellow  they  ever  had 
to  do  with."  He  was  treated  with  great  trust  and  honoured 
with  several  missions,  and  in  everything  he  did  he  acquitted 
himself  well.  Of  Dickens  as  an  editor  he  soon  formed  a  high 
opinion :  "Dickens,"  he  wrote,  "reads  every  letter  sent  to 
him,  and  not  a  note  to  the  office  is  pooh-poohed;  every  sug- 
gestion that  may  lead  to  good,  however  overlaid  with  the 
ridiculous,  is  earnestly  accepted  and  attended  to."  That 
is  the  main  art  of  editorship. 

That  Dickens  appreciated  Morley's  work  is  shown  in 
several  letters.  In  reference  to  a  paper  entitled  "The  Quiet 
Poor,"  the  novelist  wrote:  "You  affected  me  deeply  by  the 
paper  itself.  I  think  it  is  absolutely  impossible  it  should 
have  been  better  done."  And  in  1855  he  wrote:  "I  am 
very  much  touched  by  your  article  'Frost-bitten  Homes,'  " 
proposing  at  the  same  time  to  visit  with  Morley  a  number 
of  poor  homes.  Several  such  visits  were  made,  and  recalling 
them  afterwards.  Morley  told  of  the  tenderness  and  keen 
anxiety  ^vith  which  Dickens  made  liis  inquiries,  and  how, 
as  he  left  each  room  after  getting  his  facts,  he  also  left  half- 
crowns. 

The  Household  Words  Almanac,  it  should  be  recorded, 
owed  its  existence  to  Morley's  suggestion.  When  All  the 
Year  Round  was  started,  Morley  continued  to  work  for  it 
as  he  had  worked  for  its  predecessor,  but  in  1865  he  re- 
signed his  post.  Three  years  later,  when  Wills  was  seriously 
ill,  he  filled  his  place  for  some  months.  Dickens,  we  are 
told,  welcomed  him  back  with  rejoicing,  and  paid  most 
liberally  for  his  contributions,  also  greatly  valuing  the  as- 
sistance of  several  new  writers  whom  he  was  able  to  secure. 
And  Wills  wrote:  "I  am  not  in  a  hurry  to  get  back;  all 
the  better  for  All  the  Year  Round,  I  think.  The  numbers 
appear  to  me  to  be  better  than  ever  they  were  in  my  time." 

It  should  be  added  that  in  1853  Morley  acted  for  a  short 
time  as  tutor  to  Dickens's  eldest  son. 


CHAPTER  LXX 

G.  A.   SALA 

Most  famous  and  most  brilliant  of  all  the  famous  and 
brilliant  band  of  "Dickens's  young  men"  was  George  Augus- 
tus Sala.  When  Dickens  died,  Sala  wrote  the  obituary 
notice  in  the  "Daily  Telegraph,"  and  he  concluded  thus: 

"I  have  frequently  asked  myself  in  the  course  of  this 
retrospect  whether  ...  I  have  over-estimated  his 
powers,  have  exaggerated  his  qualities,  have  ranked  him 
too  high  in  the  hierarchy  of  great  men.  ...  I  can 
only  plead  that,  if  I  have  erred,  the  error  must  be 
attributed  to  ignorance — but  to  an  ignorance  which 
may  be  palliated  by  its  sincerity.  .  .  .  And  my  fanati- 
cism, if  fanaticism  it  be,  may  lose  some  of  its  apparent 
insanity  if  I  mention  that  when  he  first  came  before 
the  world  as  an  author  I  was  an  illiterate  child,  gifted 
with  a  strongly  retentive  memory,  but  Blind;  that  the 
chief  solace  in  my  blindness  was  to  hear  my  sister  read 
the  Sketches  by  Boz;  that  when  I  recovered  my  sight, 
it  was  out  of  Pickwick,  and  by  the  same  loving  teacher 
that  I  was  taught  to  read;  and  that  finally  I  knew  him 
from  1836  upwards,  and,  in  literature,  served  him  faith- 
fully for  nineteen  years." 

The  "Telegraph"  article,  slightly  extended,  was  reprinted 
in  book  form,  and  in  the  introduction  to  that  little  volume 
Sala  wrote: 

"My  constant  aim  has  been  to  suppress,  as  far  as 
I  possibly  could,  all  mention  of  my  personal  dealings 
with  him — dealings  which  have  governed  almost  ex- 
clusively the  tenor  of  my  life.  .  .  .  He  was  my  master; 
and  but  for  his  friendship  and  encouragement,  I  should 
361 


362  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

never  have  been  a  journalist  or  a  writer  of  books.  My 
first  coherent  production  was  published  by  him  in  1851 ; 
the  first  five-pound  note  I  ever  earned  by  literature 
came  from  his  kind  hand;  I  wrote  for  him,  and  for  no 
other  chief,  for  seven  years ;  he  sent  me  to  Russia ;  we 
quarrelled  (of  course,  I  was  in  the  wrong),  and  he 
laughingly  forgave  me  my  transgressions,  my  debts, 
and  my  evil  temper;  he  urged  me  to  enter  into  the 
lists  of  journalism,  and  watched  with  interest  my  prog- 
ress in  the  newspaper  with  which  I  have  been  connected 
for  thirteen  years.  .  .  .  With  the  single  exception  of 
No  Thoroughfare,  no  Christmas  number  of  Household 
Words  or  All  the  Year  Round  was  planned  without  his 
asking  my  co-operation;  less  than  a  year  ago  I  wrote 
an  article  in  the  last-named  publication ;  I  was  writing 
an  article  for  him  at  the  very  moment  when  he  was 
stricken  down;  and  the  last  words  he  ever  said  to  me 
.  .  .  were  'God  bless  you!'  And  this  is  the  whole  his- 
tory of  my  lettered  life." 

A  good  many  years  later  Sala  rather  qualified  this  utter- 
ance, but  its  fundamental  truth  is  unquestionable.  In  his 
autobiography  he  records  liis  early  interest  in  Dickens  and 
his  early  association  with  the  novelist.  From  infancy  he 
breathed  the  atmosphere  of  the  theatre,  and  he  remembered 
having  seen  performances  of  The  Strange  Gentleman  and 
The  Village  Coquettes.  He  was  present  at  the  first  perform- 
ance of  the  latter  piece,  and  he  remembered  being  taken 
behind  the  scenes,  "where  I  found  my  mother  talking  to  a 
very  young  gentleman,  with  long  brown  hair  falling  in  silky 
masses  over  his  temples ;  ^vith  eyes  which,  young  as  I  was, 
at  once  struck  me  as  full  of  power  and  strong  will,  and  with 
a  touching  expression  of  sweetness  and  kindliness  on  his 
lips."  A  few  years  later  he  met  the  novelist  again.  He 
had  left  school  and  was  intended  for  the  profession  of  an 
artist.  He  was  fifteen  years  old;  his  mother  thought — with 
a  mother's  vanity — that  his  drawings  were  worthy  of 
"Punch."  "She  did  not  know  the  original  Editor  of 
*Punch,'  "  says  Sala,  "but  she  suddenly  bethought  herself 
that  that  genial  gentleman  was  a  friend  of  Charles  Dickens ; 
so  she  wrote  the  novelist    .    .    .    reminding  him  of  the  old 


G.  A.  SALA  363 

St.  James's  Theatre  days,  and  asking  whether  she  might  be 
allowed  to  wait  ujjon  him  with  myself  and  the  inevitable  port- 
folio crammed  with  pen-and-ink  drawings."  An  appoint- 
ment was  made,  and  "Dickens  received  us  with  his  usual  cor- 
diality ;  began  to  talk  about  the  opera  and  play-houses, 
keeping  all  the  while  that  wonderful  eye  of  his  very  earnestly 
on  me:  and  then  we  opened  the  portfolio,  and  he  went  quite 
as  earnestly  through  the  pile  of  drawings.  His  verdict  was 
that  he  thought  'I  should  do,'  and  that  ^something  must  be 
done,'  and  that  Mr.  Mark  Lemon,  the  Editor  of  'Punch,' 
was  the  man  to  cjo  it;  so  the  next  day  we  called  upon  Mr. 
Lemon  at  his  office  in  Wliitefriars  with  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction from  the  author  of  Pickwick."  Nothing  came  of  the 
visit,  but  the  incident  shows  that  Sala  had  very  good  rea- 
sons for  gratitude  towards  Dickens. 

The  years  passed  again,  and  then  came  Sala's  start  in 
journalism.  The  story  of  how  he  came  to  write  "The  Key 
of  the  Street"  has  been  told  many  times,  and  need  not  be 
repeated  here.  He  sent  it  to  Dickens  with  a  letter  reminding 
him  of  their  earlier  acquaintance.  Within  four  hours  came 
a  letter  from  the  novelist  accepting  the  article  and  enclosing 
a  five-pound  note. 

"  'The  Key  of  the  Street,'  says  its  author,  "was  lit- 
erally the  turning  point  in  my  career;  yet  I  may  add 
.  .  .  that  I  at  first  entertained  not  the  slightest  hope, 
or,  indeed,  had  a  very  lively  desire,  to  contribute  any 
more  articles  to  Household  Words;  and  when,  a  few 
days  later,  the  assistant  editor  of  that  paper  wrote  to 
express  Mr.  Dickens's  wish  to  have  another  article  from 
my  pen,  I  was  for  a  considerable  time  in  grave  doubts 
as  to  what  I  should  write  about." 

For  Dickens  had  written  to  Wills :  "There  is  nobody  about 
us  whom  we  can  use  in  this  way  more  advantageously  than 
this  young  man.  It  will  be  exceedingly  desirable  to  set  him 
on  some  subjects."  Thenceforth,  week  after  week,  year 
after  year,  scarcely  a  number  of  HouseJiold  Words,  or,  later, 
of  All  the  Year  Rownd,  appeared  that  did  not  contain  an 
article  from  his  pen.  Oftentimes  he  had  two  articles  in  one 
number. 

Most  certainly  Dickens  treated  Sala  with  generosity.  The 


364  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

contributors'  book  of  Household  Words  proves  that;  for 
it  shows  that  this  young  man  continually  overdrew  his  ac- 
count. He  admits  it:  "I  had  always,"  he  says,  ^^HouseJwld 
Words  as  a  stand-by.  There  was  the  five-guinea  fee  for 
every  article  I  wrote ;  I  often  got  through  two  in  the  course 
of  one  week,  and  if,  as  it  more  than  once  happened,  I  over- 
drew my  account — I  did  so  on  one  occasion  to  the  extent 
of  twenty  pounds — and,  on  another,  of  seventy  pounds — 
Dickens  would,  after  a  while,  laughingly  suggest  the  sponge 
should  be  passed  over  the  slate  and  we  should  begin  again." 

On  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  but  think  that  Mr.  Percy 
Fitzgerald  is  not  quite  fair  to  Sala.  He  says:  "At  last  he 
persuaded  Dickens  to  send  him  to  Russia  to  do  for  the 
Journal  what  he  had  so  often  done  for  his  own  paper,  the 
'Daily  Telegraph,'  that  is,  'word  paint'  all  the  manners,  cus- 
toms, and  doings  of  the  Muscovites.  At  last  Dickens  agreed. 
But  G.  A.  S.  had  the  fatal  defect  of  'growing  tired'  of  an 
enforced  job."  Mr.  Fitzgerald  says  that  Sala  went  to  Rus- 
sia towards  the  close  of  1856,  and  in  October  his  articles 
began  to  appear  under  the  title  of  "A  Journey  due  North." 
When  he  got  to  St.  Petersburg,  we  are  told,  he  was  nearly 
tired;  it  was  too  much  trouble  to  go  and  get  information, 
so  he  wrote  long  rambling  articles.  He  devoted  column  after 
column  to  Russian  cab-drivers,  and  that  led  him  off  to  the 
cab-drivers  of  other  countries.  For  weeks  he  wrote  about 
the  great  street,  the  Newski  Prospect,  and  at  last  Dickens 
stopped  the  series. 

Now,  to  begin  with,  Sala  is  very  definite  that  he  first  began 
to  write  for  the  "Daily  Telegraph"  in  1857;  therefore  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  is  wrong  when  he  says  that  that  paper  had  often 
sent  him  on  similar  tours  previous  to  1856.  Again,  Sala 
expressly  says,  "I  was  not  expected  to  forward  any  copy 
to  HouseJiold  Words  until  I  had  left  Russia,"  and  he  gives 
a  very  acceptable  reason  for  that.  If  this  be  correct,  then 
Mr.  Fitzgerald's  recollection  is  clearly  at  fault. 

Nevertheless,  this  Russian  trip  led  to  a  rupture  with 
Dickens,  and  Sala's  explanation  is  scarcely  convincing.  He 
tells  how,  long  before  he  reached  England,  he  had  nearly 
exhausted  his  money.  He  wrote  to  Wills  for  a  ten-pound 
note,  and  he  says  "this  enabled  me  to  pay  my  fare  by 
Lille  and  Calais  to  London,  to  buy  a  few  books  and  prints 


G.  A.  SALA  365 

in  Brussels,  and  to  arrive  at  London  Bridge  with  a  couple 
of  sovereigns  in  my  pocket."  He  obtained  an  oifer  of  £250 
for  the  "Journey  due  North"  in  volume  form ;  and  then : 

*'I  quarrelled  with  Dickens.  When,  fourteen  years 
afterwards,  he  died,  I  wrote  a  notice  of  him  in  the 
*Daily  Telegraph,'  and  shortly  afterwards  this  notice 
was  republished.  .  .  .  Now  in  tliis  trifle  I  made  a  pass- 
ing allusion  to  my  misunderstanding  with  Dickens  ;^ 
and,  moved  by  I  hope  not  ungenerous  impulse,  I  added 
that  in  this  feud  I  had  been  in  the  wrong.  I  revered  the 
writer  and  I  loved  the  man.  ...  A  spiteful  critic  .  .  . 
went  out  of  his  way,  while  professing  to  review  a  work 
of  mine  entitled  'Things  I  have  Seen,  and  People  I  have 
Met,'  to  say  that  Dickens  was  very  kind  to  me,  and 
that  it  was  at  his  expense  that  I  went  to  Russia. 
Charles  Dickens  was  kind  to  many  youthful  authors  be- 
sides myself;  and  he  was  for  five  years  exceptionally 
kind  to  me,  for  the  reason  that  he  had  known  me  in 
early  youth.  But,  confound  it!  I  gave  him  malt  for 
his  meal." 

Just  a  word  here.  Admitting  the  quality  of  Sala's  work 
for  Household  Words,  we  still  have  to  remember  that  he 
was  totally  unknown  when  he  wrote  "The  Key  of  the  Street," 
and  still  a  very  obscure  journalist  when  he  undertook  this 
trip  to  Russia.  He  says  that  it  was  this  trip  that  first 
caused  his  name  to  be  known.  He  received  £5  for  every 
article  to  chose  to  write  for  Household  Words.  This  was 
generous  payment  to  an  unknown  man,  and  his  talk  about 
his  having  given  Dickens  malt  for  his  meal  was  unworthy  of 
him,  more  especially  when  we  remember  his  admission  that 
he  frequently  overdrew  his  account — once  even  to  the  extent 
of  £70 — and  that  Dickens  often  sponged  the  slate.  Let  him 
proceed : 

"As  to  the  statement  of  the  spiteful  critic,  that  I 
went  to  Russia  at  Dickens's  expense,  there  is  in  it  a 
suppression  of  truth  which  is  more  than  a  suggestion 
of  falsehood.  In  the  last  letter  which  he  wrote  me 
before  I  went  away,  he  said,  'You  shall  have  the  means 
1  See  p.  362. 


366  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

of  traveUing  in  comfort  and  respectability.'  I  drew 
a  certain  sura  to  defray  my  expenses  to  St.  Petersburg; 
and  there  I  found,  at  Messrs.  Stieglitz',  a  monthly 
credit  of  forty  pounds.  In  all,  between  April  and  No- 
vember I  received  the  sum  of  two  hundred  and  forty 
pounds,  eight-tenths  of  wliich  I  spent  in  subsistence  and 
travelling  outlay ;  and  I  landed  in  England,  as  I  have 
said,  with  two  pounds  in  my  pocket.  It  logically  fol- 
lows that  if  I  went  to  Russia  at  Dickens's  expense,  I 
wrote  the  'Journey  due  North'  at  my  own." 

The  logic  is  not  self-evident.  He  proceeds  to  relate  how  he 
subsequently  gave  offence.  About  half  a  dozen  papers  re- 
mained to  be  written  when  he  reached  London.  He  was  dis- 
satisfied with  what  he  unreasonably  considered  to  be  the 
ungenerous  treatment  he  had  received;  he  found  another 
excellent  source  of  income;  and  the  delivery  of  the  last  half- 
dozen  papers  "hung  fire,"  as  he  puts  it.  He  yet  had  the 
impertinence  to  demand  his  travelling  expenses,  however,  and 
was  referred  to  a  solicitor  for  his  pains.  In  face  of  these 
facts,  in  face  of  the  frequent  overdrafts,  and  the  "sponging 
of  the  slate" — of  which,  conceivably,  Dickens  was  growing 
rather  tired — it  is  astonishing  that  Sala,  at  almost  the  end 
of  his  career,  should  have  talked  about  his  "ungenerous 
treatment."  On  his  own  admission,  he  had  scarcely  "played 
the  game,"  and  Dickens  had  just  cause  for  resentment.  The 
novelist,  indeed,  refused  permission  for  the  republication  of 
the  papers,  and  so  the  rupture  was  complete.  However,  in 
1858  the  embargo  was  removed;  the  book  was  published,  and 
the  breach  was  healed. 

There  is  another  point  in  regard  to  wliich  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
is  not  fair  to  Sala — if,  that  is,  the  latter's  autobiography 
is  to  be  accepted  as  reliable.  He  says  that  after  a  series  of 
failures  Dickens  agreed  to  take  a  novel  from  Sala,  called 
"Quite  Alone."  It  commenced  in  February  1864,  and  went 
on  until  September;  then  there  appeared  tliis  notice:  "The 
continuation  of  this  story  is  postponed  until  this  day  fort- 
night." Next  week  there  was  this  notice :  "The  continuation 
of  this  story  is  postponed  until  next  week."  Then,  says  Mr. 
Fitzgerald,  it  was  resmned,  and  it  concluded  on  Novem- 
ber 12.     "I  believe,"  he  adds,  "Sala  supplied  not  another 


G.  A.  SALA  367 

line,  and  it  Is  certain  that  Boz  was  compelled  to  call  in  the 
aid  of  a  deft  emergency  man — Andrew  Halliday — who,  in  an 
incredibly  short  time,  contrived  to  finish  the  tale,  imita- 
ting the  style  and  peculiarities  of  his  friend — for  such  he  was 
— with  due  success."  Now,  Sala  does  not  mention  anything 
about  the  copy  of  this  story  having  "hung  fire,"  nor  does  he 
say  anything  about  Halliday  having  finished  it,  but  he  does 
state  facts  which  would  explain  the  inconvenience  caused. 
We  must  remember  that  at  this  time  his  main  source  of 
income  was  the  "Daily  Telegraph,"  and  that  whatever  he 
wrote  for  Dickens  was  in  the  nature  of  an  "aside." 

"I  began,"  he  says,  "to  write  a  novel  myself  in  the 
summer  of  1863;  it  was  called  'Quite  Alone.'  .  .  . 
Dickens  .  .  .  secured  it  for  All  the  Year  Round;  and 
my  name  was  to  be  attached  to  it.  .  .  .  It  was  about 
three-quarters  finished  when  there  came  to  me,  quite 
unexpectedly,  an  offer  from  tJie  proprietors  of  the 
'Daily  Telegraph'  to  proceed  as  a  special  correspondent 
to  the  United  States,  then  in  the  midst  of  war." 

The  italics  are  mine.  The  sentence  so  printed  is  surely 
ample  explanation  of  any  inconvenience  that  may  have  been 
caused,  and  quite  sufficient  to  dispose  of  the  insinuation  that 
Sala's  Bohemian  habits  were  the  origin  of  the  trouble.  It 
is,  indeed,  conceivable,  in  the  circumstances,  that  Halliday 
was  called  in  at  his  own  suggestion  and  not  at  Dickens's. 

But  little  need  be  said  of  Sala's  more  personal  associa- 
tions with  Dickens.  He  was  never  persona  grata  as  Yates, 
Fitzgerald,  and  Kent  were,  and  he  was  not  a  frequent  visitor 
at  the  novelist's  house,  but  he  was  well  liked,  and,  if  only 
for  the  sake  of  earlier  days,  Dickens  took  a  deep  interest  in 
him.  He  was  a  frequent  guest  at  dinners  at  Wellington 
Street,  where  the  offices  of  Household  Words  were  situated 
— "to  my  great  glee  and  contentment,"  he  says,  "I  used  to 
get  an  invitation  to  dine  at  Household  Words  office  about 
once  a  month."  He  tells,  also,  how  he  met  Dickens  in  Paris, 
and  was  "in  clover,"  and  he  says,  "I  learned  once,  quite  acci- 
dentally, from  my  friend  Edmund  Yates,  that  the  Conductor 
of  Household  Words  had  made  strenuous,  but  fruitless, 
efforts  to  obtain  for  me  a  position  on  the  staff  of  'Punch,' 
not  as  an  artist,  but  as  a  writer." 


CHAPTER  LXXI 


MRS.  LYNN  LINTON 


**GooD  enough  for  anything,  and  thoroughly  rehable." 
So  wrote  Dickens  against  the  name  of  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  in 
a  Hst  of  contributors  to  Household  Words,  and  in  writing 
it  I  think  he  wrote  all  he  felt  in  regard  to  her.  That  is  to 
say,  she  was  an  acquaintance  held  in  some  regard,  and  a 
valued  contributor,  whilst  he  showed  her  many  kindnesses, 
but  to  describe  her  as  a  friend  would  be  a  misuse  of  words. 
She  herself  tells  us  that  she  did  not  know  Dickens  intimately, 
and  that  her  business  relations  with  Household  Words  and 
All  the  Year  Round  were  conducted  with  Wills.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  she  was  just  that  type  of  strong-minded  woman 
that  was  more  likely  to  repel  than  to  attract  Dickens,  and 
the  earnest  efforts  of  her  biographer  notwithstanding,  it  is 
difficult  to  trace  in  her,  strongly  developed,  those  feminine 
traits  that  we  know  appealed  to  the  novelist.  Further,  she 
did  not  like  Forster,  and  she  offended  Dickens  once  by  dis- 
playing that  dislike  in  a  review  she  wrote  for  him  of  his 
friend's  "Life  of  Landor."  Dickens  returned  the  article, 
and  wrote  the  review  himself.  On  another  occasion  he  re- 
buked her  for  an  unnecessarily  unkind  reference  to  Lockhart 
in  an  article  which  she  wrote  for  him. 

On  the  other  hand,  she  was  a  friend  of  one  of  his  most 
cherished  friends — Landor.  This  old  man  had  had  a  great 
liking  for  her  as  a  young  girl,  and  it  was  he  who  introduced 
her  to  Dickens  at  Bath,  when  she  was  twenty-four  years  old. 
Of  the  occasion  she  says,  "We  had,  I  remember,  a  delight- 
ful evening.  Dickens  was  sweet  and  kind  and  gay  to  me." 
She  was  an  undoubtedly  able  writer,  too,  and  Dickens  was 
careful  to  entertain  her  goodwill,  whilst  the  sorrow  that 
came  into  her  life  earned  for  her  his  true  sympath}'.  We 
find  that  she  was  occasionally  a  guest  at  liis  house.  "I  used 
368 


MRS.  LYNN  LINTON  369 

to  go  to  Mr.  Dickens's  parties,  etc.,  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,"  she  wrote  to  the  late  F.  G.  Kitton,  She  had  some 
hard  struggles  during  her  life,  and  more  than  once  Dickens 
was  her  friend  in  need,  his  generosity  as  conductor  of  House- 
hold Words  helping  her  across  many  a  stony  road.  And, 
to  her  credit,  she  proved  her  gratitude  when  the  opportunity 
came  in  1859.  Household  Words  died  in  that  year,  and 
All  the  Year  Round  took  its  place.  Messrs.  Bradbury  and 
Evans  at  once  commenced  a  rival  publication,  "Once  a 
Week,"  and  made  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  a  valuable  offer.  But 
she  remembered  that  Dickens's  generous  payments  for  ar- 
ticles had  several  times  practically  saved  her  from  starva- 
tion, and  so  she  wrote  to  him,  telling  him  the  facts,  and 
asking  whether  he  saw  any  objection  to  her  accepting  the 
offer  made  to  her.  It  was  a  proper  thing  to  do,  of  course, 
but  not  everybody  would  have  done  it. 

Dickens  replied  that  she  could  not  write  too  much  for 
All  the  Year  Round,  that  whatever  she  wrote  for  him  would, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  be  warmly  welcomed,  and  that  her 
contributions  would  always  have  precedence  in  his  magazine. 
He  added  that  he  looked  upon  himself  as  her  Editor  of 
right,  and  made  it  very  clear  that  any  commerce  with  the 
opposition  would  be  regarded  as  a  personal  injury.  "Of 
course,"  says  her  biographer,  Mr.  Geo.  Somes  Layard,  "such 
a  reply  was  very  gratifying,  and  forthwith  she  became  his 
faithful  lieutenant,  and  refused  the  tempting  offer  of  his 
rivals." 

But  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  more  interesting  association  with 
Dickens  has  nothing  to  do  with  either  Household  Words 
or  All  the  Year  Round.  It  was  from  her  that  he  purchased 
Gadshill.  In  February  1858  he  wrote  to  Wills  that  he  had 
seen  a  httle  house  at  Gadshill  to  be  let,  and  that  "the  spot 
and  the  very  house  are  literally  *a  dream  of  my  childhood.'  " 
No  need  to  recall  the  story  of  the  "very  queer  small  boy" 
who  was  told  by  his  father  that  some  day,  if  he  grew  up 
to  be  a  good  man,  he  might  own  that  house.  Mr.  R.  C. 
Lehmann  says  that  the  house  referred  to  in  the  letter  to 
Wills  is  not  the  famous  house,  but  the  one  opposite,  and 
that  the  negotiations  for  its  purchase  broke  down.  Mr. 
Lehmann  was  surely  wrong,  for  when,  in  the  same  year, 
Dickens  did  purchase  the  house  in  which  he  was  to  die,  he 


370  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

wrote  to  M.  de  Cerjat:  "I  have  always  in  passing  looked 
to  see  if  it  was  to  be  sold  or  let,  and  it  has  never  been  to 
me  like  any  other  house." 

This  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  but  that  the  house  which 
is  now  world  famous,  is  the  house  referred  to  in  the  letter 
to  Wills.  It  had  belonged  to  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  father, 
and  she  had  lived  there  as  a  girl.  Shortly  after  his  death, 
Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  met  Wills  at  a  dinner-party,  and  in  the 
course  of  conversation  told  him  that  the  estate  would  shortly 
be  in  the  market.  Wills  informed  his  "chief,"  who  eventually 
became  the  owner  for  £1700.  An  amusing  fact  is  that  the 
vendor  asked  £40  for  the  ornamental  timber,  and  Dickens 
and  Wills  objecting,  the  matter  went  to  arbitration,  with 
the  result  that  Dickens  had  to  pay  £70,  which,  as  Mrs.  Lynn 
Linton  remarks,  "was  in  the  nature  of  a  triumph." 

She  never  saw  Gadshill  after  she  had  sold  it.  "He  used 
to  always  say  I  must  go  down,"  she  wrote  to  the  late  F.  G. 
Kitton,  "but  as  no  time  was  fixed  I  did  not  go." 


CHAPTER  LXXII 

SOME  MORE   MEMBERS  OF   THE  BAND 

There  are  a  few  other  members  of  the  Household  Words 
and  All  the  Year  Round  circle  wlio  have  unchallengeable 
claims  to  places  here.  Few  contributed  more  frequently, 
few  loved  Dickens  more  truly  than  James  Payn,  for  instance. 
Payn  largely  owed  his  success  in  life  to  Dickens's  encourage- 
ment, and  in  his  early  days  as  a  journalist  his  chief  sources 
of  income  were  Household  Words  and  "Chambers'  Journal," 
of  which  latter  paper  he  was  for  a  time  Editor.  His  first 
article  for  Household  Words  was  entitled  "Gentleman 
Cadet,"  and  described  life  in  a  Military  Academy.  It  led 
to  his  acquaintance  with  Dickens.  The  Governor  of  Wool- 
wich Academy  read  the  article,  took  exception  to  it,  and 
wrote  to  Dickens  with  some  acerbity.  He  stated,  "If  your 
correspondent  had  been  a  cadet  himself  I  should  not  have 
addressed  you,  but  it  is  clear  to  me  that  he  is  an  outsider." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Payn  had  been  a  cadet,  and  the 
Governor  was  so  informed.  He  demanded  the  writer's  name, 
and  Dickens  wrote  to  Payn  for  permission  to  disclose  it. 
Thus  began,  we  are  told,  "an  acquaintance  which  presently 
ripened  into  friendship,  none  the  less  sincere  though  the  obli- 
gations in  connection  with  it  were,  from  first  to  last,  all  on 
one  side."  Thenceforth  no  one  contributed  more  frequently 
to  Household  Words:  Payn  had  often  two  contributions  in 
one  number,  and  once  no  fewer  than  three, 

Dickens  and  Payn  met  in  the  flesh  for  the  first  time  In 
1856,  when  the  novelist  went  to  Edinburgh  in  the  course  of 
his  reading  tour.  The  young  man  received  a  letter  from 
the  novelist  inviting  him  to  accompany  him  and  his 
daughters  to  Hawthornden.  The  invitation  was  accepted, 
and  Dickens  related  to  Wills  "we  laughed  all  day."  After 
371 


372  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

that  day,  says  Payn,  "I  discarded  for  ever  the  picture  which 
I  had  made  in  my  mind  of  him,  and  substituted  for  it  a  still 
pleasanter  one  taken  from  life." 

The  friendship  lasted  until  Dickens's  death,  though  inti- 
macy was  impossible  owing  to  Payn  being  mostly  resident 
in  Edinburgh.  But  the  novelist  had  a  very  strong  liking 
indeed  for  him,  and  Payn  had  all  his  life  regarded  him  as  a 
literary  idol. 

John  Holhngshead  was  a  regular  contributor  of  whose 
work  Dickens  had  a  very  high  opinion..  He  commenced  to 
write  for  Household  Words  in  1851.  "Dickens,"  he  tells  us, 
"liked  descriptive  articles  of  life  and  odd  corners  of  life, 
for  in  the  early  'fifties  the  daily  newspaper  purveyed  news 
only,  with  some  social  and  political  comment,  and  had  not 
turned  itself  into  a  daily  magazine.  I  supplied  these  articles 
freely,  as  they  gave  me  outdoor  employment  which  suited  my 
active  temperament;  but  I  also  occasionally  wrote  short 
stories."  In  September  1851  we  find  Dickens  writing  to 
Wills:  "I  have  at  Gadshill  a  pretty  little  paper  of  a  good 
deal  of  merit  by  one  Mr.  Hollingshead."  That  paper  was 
entitled  "Poor  Tom,"  and  appeared  in  the  number  dated 
October  17,  1851.  Thenceforth  Hollingshead  was  one  of 
the  most  regular  contributors.  He  certainly  contributed 
to  more  than  one  of  the  famous  Christmas  numbers,  both  of 
Household  Words  and  of  All  the  Year  Round,  and  a  print 
of  the  period  shows  him  as  a  member  of  "The  Committee  of 
Concoction"  planning  Tom  Tiddler's  Ground.  The  other 
members  of  the  Committee  are  Dickens,  Wilkie  Collins,  and 
Sala. 

But  quite  possibly  Dickens  had  a  rather  closer  interest 
in  Hollingshead  than  in  some  others  of  his  young  men,  be- 
cause Hollingshead  was  so  keen  on  the  drama,  his  associa- 
tions with  which  are  historic.  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  has  re- 
corded ^  how  he  once  accompanied  Dickens  to  the  Gaiety  to 
see  Hollingshead's  revival  of  The  Miller  and  His  Men,  a 
play  that  had  charmed  the  novelist  as  a  child. 

But   there   was   never   any   intimacy.      Hollingshead   was 
just  one  of  that  immortal  band  of  "Dickens's  young  men" — 
a  most  capable  and  reliable  contributor  to  the  two   peri- 
odicals edited  by  the  novelist.    Dickens  was  to  him,  however, 
»  The  Dickensian,  December  1908. 


MORE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  BAND     373 

a  "superior  creature,"  and  to  the  end  of  his  hfc  he  reverenced 
the  great  man. 

I  think  J.  C.  Parkinson  may  be  classed  with  Hollingshcad. 
He  was  not  quite  the  journaHst  that  John  was,  but  he  was 
held  in  very  similar  regard  by  Dickens  as  a  reliable,  sound, 
competent  man  who  could  be  trusted  implicitly.  He  was 
only  seventeen  years  old  when  Household  Words  started, 
and  so  he  was  not  one  of  the  earliest  contributors  to  that 
magazine.  But  it  was  under  Dickens's  editorship  that  he 
commenced  his  journalistic  career,  and  for  Dickens  he  did 
much  excellent  work.  He  had  a  knack  of  making  even  a 
Blue  Book  interesting,  and  that  was  a  quality  which  every 
reader  of  Household  Words  and  All  the  Year  Round  knows 
appealed  to  the  Editor  of  those  magazines.  And  the  young 
man  worshipped  Dickens  as  every  one  of  that  remarkable 
band  of  contributors  did,  and  to  the  end  of  his  days  his 
associations  with  the  novelist  were  a  cherished  memory. 

Dickens's  regard  for  Parkinson  was  shown  in  a  letter 
written  in  1868.  Parkinson  appealed  to  the  novelist  to 
recommend  him  to  Mr.  Gladstone  for  the  vacant  Commis- 
sionership  of  Inland  Revenue.  In  reply  Dickens  wrote  that 
he  was  diffident  of  approaching  Mr.  Gladstone,  with  whom 
his  acquaintance  was  slight,  but  that  Mr.  Parkinson  might 
make  what  use  he  liked  of  the  following: 

"In  expressing  my  conviction  that  you  deserve  the 
place,  and  are  in  every  way  qualified  for  it,  I  found 
my  testimony  upon  as  accurate  a  knowledge  of  your 
character  and  abilities  as  any  one  can  possibly  have 
acquired.  In  my  editorship  of  Household  Words  and 
All  the  Year  Round,  you  know  very  well  that  I  have 
invariably  offered  you  those  subjects  of  political  and 
social  interest  to  write  upon,  in  which  integrity,  exact- 
ness, a  remarkable  power  of  generalising  evidence  and 
balancing  facts,  and  a  special  clearness  in  stating  a 
case,  were  indispensable  on  the  part  of  the  writer.  My 
confidence  in  your  powers  has  never  been  misplaced, 
and  through  all  our  literary  intercourse  you  have  never 
been  hasty  or  wrong.  Whatever  trust  you  have  under- 
taken has  been  so  completely  discharged  that  it  has 
become  my  habit  to  read  your  proofs  rather  for  my 


374  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

own  edification  than  (as  in  other  cases)  for  the  detec- 
tion of  some  slip  here  or  there,  or  the  more  pithy  pre- 
sentation of  the  subject. 

"That  your  literary  work  has  never  interfered  with 
the  discharge  of  your  official  duties,  I  may  assume  to 
be  at  least  as  well  known  to  3'our  colleagues  as  it  is 
to  me.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  if  the  post  were  in  my 
gift  3^ou  should  have  it,  because  3'ou  have  had  for 
some  years  most  of  the  posts  of  high  trust  that  have 
been  at  my  disposal.  An  excellent  public  servant  in 
your  literary  sphere  of  action,  I  should  be  heartily 
glad  if  you  could  have  this  new  opportunity  of  dis- 
tinguishing yourself  in  the  same  character.  And  this 
is  at  least  unselfish  in  me,  for  I  suppose  I  should  then 
lose  3'ou." 

There  are  two  or  three  others  who  may  be  dealt  with  V3ry 
briefly.  Walter  Thornbury  wrote  frequently,  and  he  was 
also  associated  with  the  novelist  on  the  "Daily  News."  He 
was  also  an  occasional  guest  at  Dickens's  house,  but  I  can 
find  no  record  of  close  friendship.  But  some  of  Dickens's 
letters  to  him  respecting  his  contributions  to  Household 
Words  and  All  the  Year  Round  are  of  quite  special  inter- 
est as  showing  the  novelist's  care  and  conscientiousness  as 
an  Editor.  Moy  Thomas  was  one  of  the  "young  men" 
particularly  valued,  because  of  his  reliability,  but  he  was 
not,  as  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  a  friend  as  some  others  were. 
Richard  Hengist  Home,  the  eccentric  and  erratic,  was  a 
very  frequent  contributor,  but  it  would  be  absurd  to  de- 
scribe him  as  a  friend.  Still,  he  is  worthy  of  remembrance 
here  because  of  his  admirable  chapter  on  Dickens  in  "The 
New  Spirit  of  the  Age," 


CHAPTER  LXXIII 

TWO  LADLES MRS.    GASKELL  AND   MISS  MARTINEAU 

Two  members  of  what  Mr.  Anthony  Humm  called  "the 
soft  sex"  remain  to  be  noted  in  this  group  of  contributors 
to  Dickens's  two  periodicals.  Mrs.  Gaskell,  as  the  author 
of  the  first  serial  story  for  Household  Words,  certainly 
has  claims  to  honourable  mention  here.  She  was  on  good, 
though  not  intimate,  terms  with  Dickens ;  was  an  occasional 
visitor  at  his  house,  and  was  one  of  the  company  at  the 
dinner  which  was  held  to  celebrate  the  start  of  David  Cop- 
perficld.  He  had  a  very  high  opinion  of  her  abilities.  That 
is  shown  by  the  following  extract  from  his  letter  inviting 
her  to  write  for  his  paper: 

"You  may  perhaps  have  seen  an  announcement  in 
the  papers  of  my  intention  to  start  a  new  cheap  weekly 
journal  of  general  literature. 

"I  do  not  know  what  your  vows  of  temperance  or 
abstinence  may  be,  but  I  do  honestly  know  that  there 
is  no  living  English  writer  whose  aid  I  would  desire 
to  enlist  in  preference  to  the  authoress  of  'Mary  Bar- 
ton' (a  book  that  most  profoundly  affected  and  im- 
pressed me),  I  venture  to  ask  you  whether  you  can 
give  me  any  hope  that  3'ou  will  write  a  short  tale, 
or  any  number  of  tales,  for  the  projected  pages. 

".  .  .1  should  set  a  value  on  your  help  which  your 
modesty  can  hardly  imagine;  and  I  am  perfectly  sure 
that  the  best  result  of  your  reflection  or  observation 
in  respect  of  the  life  around  you,  would  attract  atten- 
tion and  do  good.    ..." 

The  result  was  "Lizzie  Leigh,"  which  was  followed  by 
several  other  stories.     Dickens's  admiration  for  Mrs.  Gas- 
375 


376  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

kell's  work  continued.  In  March  1852  he  wrote  to  Forstcr: 
"Don't  you  think  Mrs.  Gaskell  charming?  With  one  ill- 
considered  thing  that  looks  like  want  of  natural  percep- 
tion, I  think  it  masterly."  This  was  a  reference  to  a  short 
story  entitled  "Memory  at  Cranford."  And  in  1855  he 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Gaskell  herself: 

"Let  me  congratulate  you  on  the  conclusion  of  your 
story  ;^  not  because  it  is  the  end  of  a  task  to  which 
you  had  conceived  a  dislike  .  ,  .  but  because  it  is  the 
vigorous  and  powerful  accomplishment  of  an  anxious 
labour.  It  seems  to  me  that  you  have  felt  the  ground 
thoroughly  firai  under  your  feet,  and  have  strided  on 
with  a  force  and  purpose  that  Must  now  give  you 
pleasure. 

And  the  letter  proceeded: 

"You  will  not,  I  hope,  allow  that  non-lucid  interval 
of  dissatisfaction  with  yourself  (and  me?),  which 
beset  you  for  a  minute  or  two  once  upon  a  time,  to 
linger  in  the  shape  of  any  disagreeable  association  with 
Household  Words.  I  shall  still  look  forward  to  the 
large  side  of  paper,  and  shall  soon  feel  disappointed 
if  they  don't  begin  to  reappear. 

"I  thought  it  best  that  Wills  should  write  the 
business  letter  on  the  conclusion  of  the  story,  as  that 
part  of  our  communications  had  always  previously 
rested  with  him.  I  trust  you  found  it  satisfactory? 
I  refer  to  it  not  as  a  matter  of  mere  form,  but  because 
I  sincerely  wish  everything  between  us  to  be  beyond 
the  possibility  of  misunderstanding  or  reservation." 

This  letter  certainly  tends  to  confirm  the  statement  of 
Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  that  Dickens  found  Mrs.  Gaskell  a 
difficult  person  to  deal  with.  Of  her  character,  as  of  her 
abilities,  he  had  nothing  but  admiration,  but  in  his  role 
of  Editor  he  found  her  very  "touchy."  She  had  an  abso- 
lute confidence  in  her  own  powers,  and  would  not  "stand 
any  nonsense"  in  regard  to  her  writings.  Dickens  was  a 
>  "North  and  South." 


TWO  LADIES  377 

brilliant  Editoi'  and  a  kindly  Editor,  ever  ready  to  en- 
courage and  help,  but  he  was  undoubtedly  an  autocrat, 
and  never  hesitated  to  alter  anybody's  "copy"  to  bring 
it  into  compliance  with  his  ideas  or — the  same  thing — 
with  the  policy  or  spirit  of  his  paper.  Young  men,  on  the 
threshold  of  their  careers,  hke  Parkinson,  Fitzgerald,  Sala, 
etc.,  were  grateful  for  his  suggestions  and  alterations,  but, 
in  justice  to  Mrs.  Gaskell,  we  have  to  remember  that  she 
had  an  established  position  as  a  novelist  before  she  began 
to  M^rite  for  Household  Words,  and  we  cannot  in  fairness 
condemn  her  for  objecting  to  another  novelist,  even  though 
it  were  Charles  Dickens  himself,  altering  the  productions 
of  her  genius.  So  that  I  cannot  follow  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
when  he  says:  "In  spite  of  soothing  compliments  and 
abounding  homage,  she  was  to  be  the  cause  of  much  worry 
and  trouble  to  him,  and,  excellent  as  her  performances 
were,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  her  assistance  was  much 
gain  to  the  paper."  Even  though  she  may  have  caused 
Dickens  "much  worry  and  trouble,"  it  is  decidedly  difficult 
to  understand  why  that  fact  should  have  prevented — say, 
"Lizzie  Leigh"  and  "North  and  South"  being  of  assist- 
ance to  the  paper !  Mr.  Fitzgerald  makes  much  of  the  fact 
that  Mrs.  Gaskell  "once  wrote  to  Wills  declaring  that  she 
must  particularly  stipulate  not  to  have  her  proofs  touched 
even  by  Mr.  Dickens."  Surely  a  novelist  whose  fame  was 
quite  independent  of  Household  Words  or  its  Editor  was 
entitled  to  make  such  a  stipulation. 

Harriet  Martineau  began  to  write  for  Household  Words 
in  1850,  and  wrote  frequently  for  three  or  four  years.  As 
to  personal  friendship,  there  really  was  none.  She  and 
Dickens  met  only  once  during  her  London  life,  and 
though  after  she  had  settled  in  the  Lake  District  they 
seem  to  have  met  occasionally  when  she  visited  London, 
their  relations  were  practically  entirely  of  a  business  char- 
acter. I  rather  think  that  it  was  as  well.  They  never 
would  have  rubbed  along  together.  They  were  both 
earnest  reformers,  but  Dickens's  views  were  the  result  of 
instinct  and  emotion ;  Harriet  Martineau's  were  the  result 
of  reasoning.  She  was  kind-hearted,  generous,  sympa- 
thetic, but  still,  in  her  work  for  social  reform  and  in  her 
propagandist  writings,   there  is   revealed  more   brain   than 


378  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

heart.  The  heart  is  not  lacking,  but  the  emotions  are 
controlled  by  a  strong,  almost  masculine  mind.  Dickens, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  almost  feminine  in  his  hability  to 
be  swayed  by  his  emotions.  They  would  quickly  have 
clashed  in  regard  to  their  views  on  women,  for  instance. 
Indeed,  they  did,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment. 

Then,  in  matters  of  economy  Dickens  did  not  please  her. 
But  she  had  a  great  admiration  for  him,  nevertheless.  "Of 
Mr.  Dickens,"  she  says,  "I  have  seen  but  little  in  face- 
to-face  intercourse;  but  I  am  glad  to  have  enjoyed  that 
little."  She  refers  to  his  "erroneousness  in  matters  of 
science"  (quoting  Oliver  Twist  and  Hard  Tim-es  in  partic- 
ular), and  says  "The  more  fervent  and  inexliaustible  his 
kindliness  (and  it  is  fervent  and  inexhaustible),  the  more 
unportant  it  is  that  it  should  be  well  informed  and  well 
directed,  that  no  errors  of  liis  may  mislead  his  readers 
on  the  one  hand  or  lessen  his  own  genial  influence  on  the 
other." 

She  was  asked  to  w^ite  for  Household  Words  when  that 
periodical  was  first  pubhshed.  She  hesitated.  She  dis- 
liked writing  for  magazines,  but  eventually  she  decided  to 
make  an  exception  in  this  case  because  its  wide  circulation 
went  far  to  compensate  for  the  ordinary  objections  to  this 
mode  of  authorship.  And  for  three  or  four  years  she  wrote 
frequently — stories,  picturesque  accounts  of  manufactures 
and  their  productive  processes,  articles  on  personal  in- 
firmities (the  treatment  of  blindness,  deafness,  idiotcy, 
etc.),  and  so  on. 

In  1854,  however,  she  ceased  to  write  for  the  paper.  She 
disapproved  of  "the  principles,  or  want  of  principles,  on 
which  the  magazine  was  carried  on,"  and  she  thought  the 
proprietors  "grievously  inadequate  to  their  function, 
philosophically  and  morally."  She  held  that  she  could 
not  write  her  views  on  the  Woman's  position  in  a  magazine 
in  which  Dickens  had  already  expressed  his  totally  dif- 
ferent views.  There  was  logic  in  tliis.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  that  the  articles  in  Household  Words  were  not 
signed,  and  expressions  of  opinion  contained  in  them  were 
ine\dtably — and,  I  take  it,  designedly — accepted  as 
Dickens's  opinion.  Therefore,  such  a  complete  inconsis- 
tency would  have  been  absurd. 


TWO  LADIES  379 

But  later  another  difference  arose.  She  was  asked  to 
write  a  tale  for  a  Christmas  number,  and  she  wrote  "The 
Missionary."  ^  But  it  was  rejected,  "because  the  public 
would  say  that  Mr.  Dickens  was  turning  Catholic,"  and 
because  Wills  and  Dickens  "would  never  publish  anytliing, 
fact  or  fiction,  which  gave  a  favourable  view  of  any  one 
under  the  influence  of  the  CathoHc  faith."  She  tells  us 
that  from  that  time  her  confidence  and  comfort  in  House- 
hold Words  were  gone,  and  she  could  never  again  write 
fiction  for  them,  nor  anything  in  which  principle  or  feeling 
were  concerned.  So  far,  so  good ;  but  there  presently  ap- 
peared in  Household  Words  a  story  in  which  a  Catholic 
priest  was  held  up  to  contumely.     She  wrote  to  Wills : 

"The  last  thing  I  am  likely  to  do  is  to  write  for 
an  anti-Catholic  publication,  and  least  of  all  when  it 
is  anti-Catholic  on  the  sly.  I  have  had  little  hope  of 
Household  Words  since  the  proprietors  refused  to 
print  an  historical  fact  (otherwise  approved  of)  on 
the  ground  that  the  hero  was  a  Jesuit:  and  now  that 
they  follow  up  this  suppression  of  an  honourable  truth 
by  the  insertion  of  a  dishonourable  fiction  (or  fact — 
no  matter  which),  they  can  expect  no  support  from 
advocates  of  religious  liberty  or  lovers  of  fair-play. 
.  .  .  I  might  as  well  write  for  the  'Record'  news- 
paper; and,  indeed,  so  far  better,  that  the  'Record' 
avows  its  anti-Catholic  course.  .  .  .  No,  I  have  no 
more  to  say  to  Household  Words,  and  you  will  prefer 
my  telling  you  plainly  why,  and  giving  you  this  much 
light  on  the  views  your  course  has  occasioned  in  one 
who  was  a  hearty  well-wisher  to  Household  Words  as 
long  as  possible." 

Here,  it  seems  to  me,  her  logic  was  at  fault.  She  had 
urged  consistency  in  the  case  of  the  position  of  women,  in 
this  matter  she  objected  to  consistency.  Dickens's  atti- 
tude towards  the  Catholic  Church  was  a  very  astonishing 
trait  in  one  who  in  almost  everything  was  so  tolerant,  and 
who  numbered  among  his  best-loved  friends  members  of 
that  Church;  but,  given  the  fact  of  his  views,  and  remem- 
1  Included  in  "Sketches  from  Life." 


380  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

bering  again  the  anonymity  of  the  contents  of  his  maga- 
zine, he  was  surely  entitled  to  print  something  unfavour- 
able or  antagonistic  to  that  Church,  and  to  refuse  to  print 
something  in  its  favour.  Without  being  understood  as  ap- 
proving of  his  point  of  view,  one  may  surely  say  that  if 
Miss  Martineau  wanted  consistency  it  was  surely  incon- 
sistent of  her  to  object  to  it  when  it  was  offered  to  her. 

Thus  ended  her  connection  with  Household  Words. 
There  was  no  quarrel;  she  and  Dickens  and  Wills  parted 
friends,  but  I  can  find  no  record  of  any  further  inter- 
course at  all. 


CHAPTER  LXXIV 

AETHUR  AND  ALBERT  SMITH  AND  GEORGE  DOLBY 

In  the  spring  of  1858  Dickens  commenced  those  read- 
ings which  so  took  the  world  by  storm,  and  made  him  per- 
sonally better  known  to  his  readers  than  any  other  novel- 
ist, before  or  since.  In  connection  therewith  he  had,  at 
different  times,  three  managers — Arthur  Smith,  Mr. 
Headlands,  and  George  Dolby.  The  first  was  a  well- 
beloved  friend  long  before  readings  were  ever  thought  of, 
the  second  was  merely  a  servant  and  that  only  for  a  short 
time,  the  last-named,  at  first  only  a  servant,  became  a 
trusted  business  confidant,  a  valued  friend,  and  a  much- 
liked  companion. 

Smith  and  his  brother  Albert  were  intimate  with  Dickens 
from  the  early  years,  though  I  cannot  ascertain  when  they 
first  became  acquainted.  His  name  first  occurs  in  Forster's 
book  in  connection  with  the  death  of  Douglas  Jcrrold,  in 
the  letter  suggesting  a  series  of  theatrical  performances, 
etc.,  for  the  benefit  of  the  widow  and  family.  "I  have  got 
hold  of  Arthur  Smith,"  writes  Dickens,  "as  the  best  man  of 
business  I  know,  and  go  to  work  to-morrow  morning."  In  the 
following  year  the  famous  readings  commenced  with  Smith 
as  manager.  One  hundred  and  twenty-five  readings  were 
given  between  April  16,  1858  and  October  1859,  and  Smith 
went  with  him  everywhere  as  his  "friend  and  secretary." 
Through  all  the  tour  his  "zealous  friendship  and  pleasant 
companionship"  were  a  joy  to  Dickens,  and  almost  every 
one  of  his  letters  written  during  the  tour  contains  some 
hearty  and  genial  reference  to  his  manager.  All  these  ref- 
erences, humorous,  and  breathing  a  deep  friendship,  also 
reveal  how  valuable  Smith  was  to  Dickens,  taking  every 
detail  of  business  off  his  hands.  Dickens  simply  had  to 
read;  Smith  saw  to  everything  else,  and  saw  to  it  thor- 
381 


382  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

oughly.  Needless  to  say,  when  the  second  series  was  fixed 
up,  no  other  man  was  thought  of  as  manager,  but  Smith's 
health,  never,  apparently,  very  good,  broke  down  com- 
pletely. The  series  commenced  in  1861,  and  Smith  super- 
intended only  the  first  six,  which  were  all  given  in  London. 
His  ilhiess  was  a  grief  to  Dickens,  not  simply  because  he 
had  come  to  regard  the  man  as  indispensable,  but  because 
he  loved  him. 

The  end  came  in  October.  "Poor  dear  Arthur  is  a  sad 
loss  to  me,"  wrote  Dickens  to  his  daughter,  "and  indeed 
I  was  very  fond  of  him."  To  Mr.  H.  G.  Adams  he  wrote: 
"My  readings  are  a  sad  subject  to  me  just  now,  for  I  am 
going  away  on  the  twenty-eighth  to  read  fifty  times,  and  I 
have  lost  Mr.  Arthur  Smith — a  friend  whom  I  can  never 
replace — who  always  went  with  me,  and  transacted,  as  no 
other  man  ever  can,  all  the  business  connected  with  them, 
and  without  whom,  I  fear,  they  will  be  dreary  and  weary 
to  me."  To  Macready  he  w^rote:  "The  death  of  Arthur 
Smith  has  caused  me  great  distress  and  anxiety.  I  had 
a  great  regard  for  him,  and  he  made  the  reading  part  of 
my  life  as  light  and  pleasant  as  it  could  be  made.  I  had 
hoped  to  bring  him  to  see  you,  and  had  pictui'ed  to  myself 
how  amused  and  interested  j^ou  w^ould  have  been  with  his 
wonderful  tact  and  consummate  mastery  of  arrangement. 
But  it's  all  over."  And  finally,  to  Miss  Hogarth  he  wrote 
during  the  tour:  "I  miss  poor  Arthur  dreadfully.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  to  imagine  how  much.  It  is  not  only  that 
his  loss  to  me  socially  is  quite  irreparable,  but  that  the 
sense  I  used  to  have  of  compactness  and  comfort  about 
me  while  I  was  reading  is  quite  gone.  And  when  I  come 
out  for  the  ten  minutes,  when  I  used  to  find  liim  alwaj's 
ready  for  me  with  something  cheerful  to  say,  it  is  forlorn. 
I  cannot  but  fancy,  too,  that  the  audience  must  miss  the 
old  specialty  of  a  pervading  gentleman." 

Albert  Smith  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  readings,  but 
the  two  brothers  may  well  be  linked  together.  He  was  a 
very  popular  member  of  the  Dickens  circle,  particularly 
in  the  Tavistock  House  days.  He  had  qualities  that  must 
have  made  his  presence  at  those  Twelfth  Night  parties  a 
veritable  delight.  Mr.  R.  Renton  says:  "Albert  Smith's 
great  attraction  was  his  buoyant,  happy  spirit,  Iris  care- 


ARTHUR  AND  ALBERT  SMITH       383 

less,  irresponsible  nature,  and  his  keen  enjoyment  of  that 
Bohemian  side  of  the  hfe  of  liis  day,  of  which  Dickens  and 
his  friends  made  the  very  most,  and  of  wliich,  in  this  twen- 
tieth century,  there  does  not  exist  even  the  merest  shred." 
This  Bohemian  of  Bohemians,  as  Sir  Frank  Marzials  calls 
him,  enjoyed  life  at  its  fullest.  Happiness,  light-heartcd- 
ness,  generosity,  always  characterised  Albert  Smith,  and 
it  would  have  been  surprising  indeed  if  he  had  not  been  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Dickens  circle.  His  marriage 
with  a  daughter  of  the  Keeleys  brought  him  into  close 
touch  with  the  circle,  of  which  he  was  soon  a  very  popular 
member.  Canon  Ainger  has  told  us  how  Smith  would 
drop  in  at  Tavistock  House  "after  a  two  or  three  thou- 
sandth ascent  of  Mont  Blanc,  but  never  refusing  at  our 
earnest  entreaty  to  sit  down  to  the  piano  and  sing  us  'My 
Lord  Tomnoddy,'  "  or  his  own  latest  version  of  'Gaglig- 
nani's  Messenger.'  "  Be  it  noted  that  the  first  piece  played 
by  the  children  was  Smith's  burletta  of  "Guy  Fawkes." 

In  1845  Smith,  with  Dickens's  approval  and  assistance, 
dramatised  The  Cricl'et  on  tJie  Hearth.  He  worked  from 
the  proofs  of  the  story  so  that  the  play  was  produced  by 
the  Keeleys  at  the  Lyceum  the  same  day  that  the  book 
was  published.  In  the  previous  year  Smith  had  written 
a  short  prologue  for  Edward  Stirling's  adaptation  of 
Martin  Chuzzlewit — "Mrs.  Harris" — which  was  pla3'cd 
at  the  Strand  Theatre.  And  in  1846  he  dramatised  Th^ 
Battle  of  Life  for  the  Keeleys.  Again  he  had  Dickens's 
approval,  and  the  novelist  came  home  from  Paris  expressly 
to  attend  rehearsals. 

Shortly  before  he  died,  Arthur  Smith  urged  that  his 
deputy.  Headlands,  should  succeed  him  as  manager  of  the 
readings.  Dickens  respected  that  wish,  and  Headlands 
was  engaged,  but  he  did  not  prove  a  success.  He  had  been 
a  good  deputy,  but  he  was  not  equal  to  the  full  responsi- 
bilit}',  and  throughout  this  second  series  Dickens  had 
anxieties  and  worries  that  he  had  never  known  under 
Smith's  management,  and  was  not  to  know  again. 

When  the  third  series  was  arranged  in  1866,  George 
Dolby  was  appointed  to  travel  with  Dickens  as  Messrs. 
Chappell's  representative  and  manager.  There  was  no 
thought  of  companionship.     Dolby  was  there  as  a  respon- 


384  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

sible  servant,  and  W.  H.  Wills  travelled  with  Dickens  as 
companion,  and,  to  a  degree,  as  secretary.  Dolby  was 
scarcely  thrown  into  the  novelist's  company  at  all.  But 
presently  the  latter  began  to  realise  that  he  had  found  a 
first-class  manager,  and,  of  course,  Wills  could  not  be  per- 
petually travelling  up  and  down  the  country  just  to  keep 
him  company.  So  gradually  the  manager  became  more  in- 
timate, and  at  last  developed  into  a  congenial  companion 
and  well-liked  friend.  And  when  proposals  for  a  tour  in 
America  became  insistent,  and  Dickens  was  so  unsettled  as 
to  whether  to  go  or  not,  he  had  developed  such  confidence 
in  Dolby,  that  he  decided  to  send  him  across  the  Atlantic 
to  see  how  the  land  lay,  and  to  be  guided  by  his  report. 
We  all  know  the  result. 

Dolby  went  to  the  United  States  as  Dickens'  manager, 
and  through  all  that  tremendous  time  proved  a  good  and 
loyal  friend.  He  has  told  the  story  of  the  tour,  and  I 
shall  not  touch  upon  it  here,  except  to  recall  the  watchful 
care  with  which  he  looked  after  "the  Chief"  whom  he  had 
come  to  love  so  well.  Over  and  over  again  in  his  letters 
home  Dickens  makes  reference  to  this  watchful  care.  "He 
is  as  tender  as  a  woman  and  as  watchful  as  a  doctor,"  is 
one  of  liis  tributes. 

That  tour  cemented  the  friendship.  Several  times  Dolby 
was  a  guest  at  Gadshill,  and  after  the  return  from 
America  he  lunched  with  Dickens  at  All  the  Year  Round 
office  at  least  once  a  week.  Dickens  had  visited  him  at  his 
house  at  Ross  before  the  tour,  and  after  it — in  January 
1869 — he  spent  a  week-end  there.  He  gave  Dolby's  little 
girl  a  Shetland  pony,  and  stood  sponsor  to  his  manager's 
little   son. 

Dolby,  of  course,  managed  the  final  series  of  readings  in 
this  country. 


CHAPTER  LXXV 

HANS     CHRISTIAN     ANDERSEN 

Hans  Christian  Andersen's  friendship  with  Dickens 
was  formed  in  1847,  but  his  chief  associations  with  the  novel- 
ist were  during  his  visit  to  Gadshill,  ten  years  later,  and  so 
I  have  left  him  until  now.  He  was  one  of  Dickens's  most 
enthusiastic  hero-worshippers.  Indeed,  it  seems  clear  that 
his  adoration  of  Dickens  eventually  became  a  real  nuisance, 
so  that  the  English  novelist  quietly  dropped  him.  I  cannot 
but  think  that  the  Dane  must  have  been  a  disappointing 
sort  of  individual  to  a  man  like  Dickens.  The  Englishman 
was  emotional,  of  course,  but  he  was  always  a  man  in  the 
company  of  men.  That  can  scarcely  be  said  of  Andersen. 
He  was  of  a  morbid  turn  of  mind,  and  he  was  decidedly — 
yes,  babyish.  A  kind  word,  and  like  a  sensitive,  delicate 
child,  he  would  shed  tears ;  a  word  of  encouragement,  and 
he  was  in  the  dust  at  the  feet  of  him  who  had  uttered  that 
word;  a  harsh  word,  an  adverse  criticism,  and  he  suffered 
agony.  Very  naturally  Dickens  felt  drawn  towards  the 
author  of  "The  Ugly  Duckling,"  and  he  took  some  special 
notice  of  him  in  1847.  He  saw  but  little  of  him  then,  how- 
ever. Ten  years  later  Andersen  stayed  at  Gadshill,  and 
then  he  was  in  paradise.  His  raptures  over  his  host  and 
his  host's  family,  and  the  house  and  all  the  surrounding 
country,  suggest  the  transports  of  an  imaginative  slum 
kiddie  who  finds  himself  in  a  green  field  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life.  To  all  his  frieiuds  he  wrote  in  the  same  strain, 
and  when  he  returned  to  Denmark,  Dickens  received  from 
him  similar  letters.  Tliis  childish  sort  of  conduct  must 
have  become  very  tiresome,  but  there  was  worse  than  that. 
Andersen  lived  in  his  friendship  with  the  great  English 
novelist  whom  he  seems  to  have  pestered  with  letters  in- 
troducing this,  that,  or  the  other  friend.  Certain  it  is  that 
at  last  Dickens  cold-shouldered  him,  and  this  is  the  reason 
385 


386  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

suggested  by  Andersen's  biographer.  Anyhow,  with  all  the 
testimony  that  we  have  to  Dickens's  loyalty  in  friendship 
we  may  be  quite  sure  that  he  did  not  turn  Andersen  down 
without  some  very  good  reason. 

There  is  another  point.  If  there  is  one  thing  more  than 
another  that  would  be  assumed  about  Hans  Christian 
Andersen  from  a  reading  of  his  books,  it  is  that  he  must 
have  had,  in  common  with  Dickens,  a  great  love  for  chil- 
dren. Not  so,  however.  Andersen  resembled  a  lot  of  peo- 
ple that  we  all  know;  he  Uked  nice  clean  and  bright  little 
boys  and  girls,  and  to  children  that  he  liked  he  could  be 
very  charming;  but  childhood  in  itself  had  no  special 
charms  for  him,  and  his  fairy  tales  were  never  regarded 
by  him  as  of  very  much  account.  Imagine  Dickens  read- 
ing those  tales  and  saying  enthusiastically:  "Here  is  a  man 
absolutely  after  my  o^vn  heart !"  Imagine  his  coming  to 
know  that  man  intimateh'-,  and  the  shock  that  he  would 
get  when  he  learned  the  truth.  In  fact,  Andersen  was  a 
shallow  sort  of  man.  In  matters  of  friendship  he  had  little 
to  give  and  demanded  a  great  deal. 

I  think  there  can  be  little  purpose  in  pointing  to  the 
fact  that  Andersen,  like  Dickens,  had  hard  struggles  in 
boyhood.  Indeed,  I  tliink  the  similarity — up  to  a  point — 
of  their  early  experiences  must  have  rather  accentuated 
their  lack  of  sympathy  in  later  years.  Dickens  never  suf- 
fered quite  such  severe  priA'^ations  in  boyhood  as  Ander- 
sen did.  The  latter's  sufferings  were  physical;  that  is  to 
say,  he  positively  did  starve  at  times  and  wandered  the 
streets  of  a  big  city  penniless  and  friendless.  Dickens's 
sufferings  were  of  a  different  kind.  He  was  in  poverty, 
certainly,  but  mother  and  father  were  with  him,  and  we 
know  that  his  father,  at  any  rate,  won  his  affection.  His 
blacking  factory  experiences  were  painful,  because  he  was 
a  boy  of  imagination  with  a  conviction — which  was  not 
begotten  of  snobbislmess — that  he  was  superior  to  his 
environment.  It  may  be  said  that  Andersen  was  the  more 
fortunate  of  the  two  in  that  he  found  patrons — the  State 
itself  educated  him — but  I  doubt  it.  Dickens,  as  his  father 
put  it,  "may  be  said  to  have  educated  himself."  He  learned 
endurance  and  self-reliance,  and  he  grew  up  to  a  man  of 
fibre.     Andersen  certainly  did  not. 


Hans  Chkistian  Andersen 
From  a  Drawing  by  E.  M.  Bcerentzen 


HANS   CHRISTIAN  ANDERSEN        387 

Very  likely  Dickens  first  came  to  know  of  Andersen 
through  William  Jerdan,  who  was  the  first  man  to  intro- 
duce the  Danish  writer  to  the  English  people.  Andersen 
read  Dickens's  books  very  early,  and  in  1846  he  wrote  to 
Jerdan : 

"How  I  should  like  to  shake  the  hand  of  'Boz.' 
When  I  read  his  books  I  often  think  I  have  seen  such 
things,  and  feel  I  could  write  like  that.  Do  not  mis- 
understand me;  and  if  you  are  a  friend  of  'Boz'  and 
he  sees  these  lines,  he  will  not  consider  it  presump- 
tion; but  I  do  not  know  how  better  to  express  myself 
than  to  say  that  what  completely  captivates  me  seems 
to  become  part  of  myself.  As  the  wind  whistles  round 
his  bell-rope,  I  have  often  heard  it  whistle  on  a  cold 
wet  autumn  evening,  and  the  chirp  of  the  cricket  I 
remember  well  in  the  cosy  corner  of  my  parents' 
humble  room." 

In  the  following  year  he  paid  liis  first  visit  to  England, 
and  he  met  Dickens  at  Lady  Blessington's.  To  that  lady 
Dickens  had  written:  "I  must  see  Andersen,"  and  he  came 
up  to  town  from  Broadstairs  specially  for  that  purpose. 
He  did  so  a  second  time  and  brought  with  him  a  set  of 
his  books,  in  every  volume  of  which  he  had  written:  "To 
Hans  Christian  Andersen,  from  his  friend  and  admirer, 
Charles  Dickens."  At  the  end  of  his  stay  in  England, 
Andersen  visited  Dickens  at  Broadstairs  and  dined  with 
him,  and  the  following  morning  Dickens  walked  over  to 
Ramsgate  pier  to  say  "Good-bye!"  "We  pressed  each 
other's  hands,  and  he  looked  at  me  so  kindly  with  his 
shrewd  sympathetic  eyes,  and  as  the  sliip  went  off,  there 
he  stood  waving  his  hat  and  looking  so  gallant,  so  youth- 
ful, and  so  handsome.  Dickens  was  the  last  who  sent  me 
a  greeting  from  dear  England's  shore." 

Not  long  afterwards,  Bentley  published  "A  Christmas 
Greeting  to  my  English  Friends,"  which  contained  seven  of 
the  fairy  tales,  and  "A  Poet's  Day  Dreams,"  containing 
fourteen  new  stories,  and  the  dedication  was  to  Dickens, 
the  author  declaring  in  his  preface:  "I  feel  a  desire,  a  long- 
ing, to  transplant  in  England  the  first  produce  of  my  poetic 


388  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

garden  as  a  Christmas  greeting,  and  I  send  it  to  you,  my 
dear,  noble  Charles  Dickens,  who,  by  j^our  works  had  been 
previously  dear  to  me,  and  since  our  meeting  have  taken 
root  in  my  heart." 

Ten  years  were  to  pass  before  the  two  writers  should 
meet  again.  They  certainly  corresponded  during  that 
period,  but  none  of  the  letters  has  been  preserved.  In  March 
1857  Andersen  wrote  to  Dickens  that  he  proposed  to  visit 
England  during  the  coming  summer: 

^^Little  Dorrit  enthrals  me  entirely.  I  would,  and 
must  admire  you  for  the  sake  of  this  one  book  alone, 
even  if  you  had  not  previously  bestowed  upon  the 
world  those  splendid  compositions  David  Copperfield, 
Nelly,^  and  the  rest.  When  I  last  saw  and  spoke  with 
you  in  England  some  twelve  years  ago,  and  felt  a 
greater  regard  for  you,  if  possible,  than  before,  you 
presented  me  with  your  published  works,  which  are  a 
real  treasure  to  me.  I  possess  the  later  books,  but 
3'ou  must  give  me  a  copy  of  Little  Dorrit  when  we 
greet  each  other  again,  for  it  will  certainly  not  find 
a  more  appreciative  admiring  reader  than  myself.  .  .  . 
Keep  a  corner  in  your  heart  for  me.  .  .  .  God's  bless- 
ing and  delight  be  yours  as  you  delight  us  all." 

In  that  same  letter  he  wrote:  "I  beg  3'ou  to  send  me 
a  few  lines,  in  April  at  the  latest,  to  say  whether  you  will 
be  in  London  this  summer  .  .  .  for  it  is  not  for  London's 
sake  I  am  coming  to  England.  The  visit  is  for  you  alone." 
He  was  sent  into  the  seventh  heaven  by  Dickens's  reply, 
which  was  an  invitation  to  stay  at  Gadshill.  "Your  letter 
has  made  me  infinitely  happy,"  he  responded.  "It  has  quite 
possessed  me;  I  am  overcome  with  joy  at  the  thought  of 
being  with  you  for  a  short  time,  of  living  in  your  house 
and  forming  one  of  your  circle!  You  do  not  know  how 
much  I  value  itj  and  how  in  my  heart  I  thank  God,  your- 
self, and  your  wife!" 

He  came,  and  had  whatever  afterwards  he  declared  was 
the  happiest  time  of  his  life.  The  whole  of  his  time  was 
spent  with  Dickens,  and  he  never  went  to  London  save  in 
» Thus  did  he  always  write  and  speak  of  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop. 


HANS  CHRISTIAN  ANDERSEN        389 

his  host's  company.  He  walked  arm  in  arm  through  the 
London  streets  with  Dickens,  and  he  tasted  of  the  joys  of 
paradise.  To  all  his  friends  he  wrote  rapturous  accounts 
of  his  visit.  To  the  Queen  Dowager  of  Denmark,  for  in- 
stance, he  wrote:  "I  have  now  been  in  England  five  weeks, 
and  have  spent  the  whole  time  with  Charles  Dickens  in  his 
charming  villa  at  Gadshill.  .  .  .  Dickens  is  one  of  the 
most  amiable  men  that  I  know,  and  possesses  as  much  heart 
as  intellect."  And  then  he  told  how  he  had  been  one  of 
the  fifty  honoured  guests  at  the  Gallery  of  Illustration  when 
Dickens  and  his  friends  had  played  "The  Frozen  Deep" 
before  the  Queen,  the  Prince  Consort,  and  the  King  of  the 
Belgians.  He  attended  the  first  Handel  Festival  at  the 
Crystal  Palace  with  the  Dickens  family,  and  he  visited  Miss 
Coutts  with  his  host,  whilst,  needless  to  say,  Dickens 
showed  him  all  the  beauties  of  Kent. 

The  visit  came  to  an  end  on  July  15,  and  Dickens  ac- 
companied his  guest  to  Maidstone  to  see  him  off.  "He  was 
like  a  dear  brother  up  to  the  last  moment." 

After  his  return  to  his  native  land,  Andersen  wrote  often 
to  Dickens  in  the  same  strain  of  enthusiastic  hero-worship, 
and  for  a  time  Dickens  replied  cordially,  but  suddenly  it 
all  ceased,  and  in  the  last  fifteen  years  of  Andersen's  life 
there  is  absolutely  no  mention  of  the  English  novelist. 
Andersen's  biographer  says :  "The  enthusiasm  he  felt  for 
him  in  1857  was  too  perfervid  to  last  very  long,  and 
Dickens's  very  natural  hesitation  to  foregather  indiscrimi- 
nately with  all  the  Danes  whom  he  was  in  the  habit  of  send- 
ing from  time  to  time  with  letters  of  introduction  seems  at 
last  to  have  somewhat  offended  Andersen." 

It  was  a  pity,  but  still  it  is  good  to  know  that  Charles 
Dickens  and  Hans  Christian  Andersen  were,  if  only  for  a 
period,  such  close  friends. 


CHAPTER  LXXVI 

CHARLES    ALBERT    FECHTEE 

Charles  Albert  Fechter  came  into  the  novelist's  life 
and  went  out  of  it  as  a  dream  that  passes  in  the  night. 
For  a  brief  span  of  years  there  was  an  extraordinary  friend- 
ship, and  the  actor  seems  to  have  exercised  a  fascination 
over  the  novelist  that  was  unique  in  the  latter's  life.  Dickens 
was  his  backer  in  England  and  supported  him  with  the  great- 
est enthusiasm.  Forster  says:  "He  became  his  helper  in 
disputes,  adviser  on  literary  points,  referee  in  matters  of 
management,  and  for  some  years  no  face  was  more  familiar 
than  the  French  comedian's  at  Gadshill  or  in  the  office  of 
his  journal."  Dickens  formed  a  tremendous  estimate  of 
Fechter's  genius,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to  push  him  to 
the  fore.  And  for  the  man  himself  he  developed  a  positive 
hcro-worsliip.  There  was  no  more  frequent  visitor  at  Gads- 
hill,  letters  innumerable  passed  between  the  two,  and  again 
and  again  Dickens  wrote  in  terms  of  praise  and  of  cordial 
personal  regard.  "Count  always  on  my  fidelity  and  true 
attachment" ;  "I  am,  my  dear  Fechter,  ever  your  cordial  and 
affectionate  friend";  "I  shall  be  heartily  pleased  to  see  you 
again,  my  dear  Fechter,  and  to  share  your  triumphs  with 
the  real  earnestness  of  a  real  friend" — and  so  on. 

One  can  only  wonder  at  Dickens's  obsession.  That  such 
it  was  I  am  sure.  I  have  heard  friends  of  the  novelist  speak 
of  it  with  wonderment,  and  speak  slightingly  of  Fechter; 
and  Forster  seems  to  justify  me  when  he  says :  "But  theatres 
and  their  affairs  are  things  of  a  season,  and  even  Dickens's 
whim  and  humour  will  not  revive  for  us  any  interest  in  them." 
Mr.  R.  Renton  reads  into  this  an  unaccountable  sneer  at 
the  theatre.  If  such  it  were,  it  would  indeed  be  unaccount- 
able in  view  of  Forster's  life-long  liking  for  the  theatre ;  but 
I  do  not  so  interpret  it.  Rather  do  I  see  in  it  a  "letting 
390 


CHARLES  ALBERT  FECHTER         391 

down  lightly"  of  the  actor  (who  was  still  alive  when  Forstcr 
wrote),  for  whom  few  of  Dickens's  friends  had  any  regard, 
whose  fascination  for  Dickens  was  a  puzzle  to  most  of  his 
friends. 

How  Dickens  came  to  know  Fechter  is  told  by  James  T. 
Fields : 

"His  genuine  enthusiasm  for  Mr.  Fechter's  acting 
was  most  interesting.  He  loved  to  describe  seeing  him 
first  quite  by  accident  in  Paris,  having  strolled  into  a 
little  theatre  there  one  night.  'He  was  making  love 
to  a  woman,'  Dickens  said,  'and  he  elevated  her,  as  well 
as  himself,  by  the  sentiment  in  which  he  enveloped  her, 
that  they  trod  in  a  purer  ether  and  in  another  sphere 
quite  elevated  out  of  the  present.  "By  heavens !"  I 
said  to  myself;  "a  man  who  can  do  this  can  do  any- 
thing." I  never  saw  two  people  more  purely  and  in- 
tensely elevated  by  the  power  of  love.  The  manner 
also,'  he  continued,  'in  which  he  presses  the  hem  of  the 
dress  of  Lucy  in  "The  Bride  of  Lammermoor,"  is  some- 
thing wonderful.  The  man  has  genius  in  him  which  is 
unmistakable.'  " 

It  was  entirely  owing  to  Dickens's  enthusiasm  that  Fech- 
ter came  to  London,  He  opened  in  "Ruy  Bias"  and  took 
the  town  by  storm.  Then  he  appeared  in  Shakespeare,  and 
his  "Hamlet"  created  a  sensation,  and  had  a  remarkable 
run.  On  December  26,  1867,  he  appeared  as  Obenreizer  in 
No  Thoroughfare  at  the  Adelphi.  The  play  ran  there  for 
150  nights,  and  then  was  transferred  to  the  Royal  Standard 
Theatre,   Shoreditch. 

Fechter  gave  Dickens  the  Swiss  chalet  which  he  caused 
to  be  erected  in  the  shrubbery  at  Gadshill.  He  furnished 
it,  too,  for  we  read  in  the  issue  of  "The  Gad's  Hill  Gazette," 
dated  August  19,  1865,  that  "Mr.  C.  Fechter,  who  left  on 
Sunday  for  Glasgow  (where  he  intends  to  begin  his  pro- 
vincial tour),  has  just  completed  his  charming  present  of  a 
chalet,  by  furnishing  it  in  a  very  handsome  manner."  Writ- 
ing of  this  chalet  in  that  same  year,  Dickens  says :  "It  will 
really  be  a  very  pretty  thing,  and  in  the  summer  (suppos- 
ing it  not  to  be  blown  away  in  the  spring)  the  upper  room 


392  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

will  make  a  charming  study."  Forster  tells  us  that  it  really 
did  become  a  great  resource  in  the  summer  months,  and 
much  of  Dickens's  work  was  done  there.  And  it  was  in 
this  chalet,  in  the  room  "up  among  the  branches  of  the 
trees,"  that  he  wrote  for  the  last  time  on  that  lovely  June 
afternoon  in  1870. 

In  1869  Fechter  went  to  America,  and  Dickens  heralded 
him  with  an  article  in  the  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  in  which  he 
spoke  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm  of  the  actor's  genius,  and 
pointed  out  that  his  appreciation  was  not  the  result  of 
personal  regard,  but  that  the  personal  regard  had  sprung 
out  of  his  appreciation.  "I  cannot  wish  my  friend  a  better 
audience  than  he  will  have  in  the  American  people,"  the 
article  concluded,  "and  I  cannot  wish  them  a  better  actor 
than  they  will  have  in  my  friend."  He  died  while  Fechter 
was  in  America. 


CHAPTER  LXXVII 

THE  GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL 

I  HAVE  always  wondered  at  the  neglect  meted  out  to  John 
Forster.  It  is  said  that  he  is  known  to  the  present  genera- 
tion only  as  the  friend  of  Dickens,  and  I  believe  it  is  true. 
It  is  something  to  be  sure  of  immortality  as  the  friend  of 
such  a  man  as  Dickens,  but  quite  apart  from  that  Forster 
was  a  very  remarkable  man  who  does  not  deserve  the  neg- 
lect that  he  suffers.  I  think  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  say 
that  no  man  exercised  a  greater  influence  upon  Victorian 
literature  than  this  self-made  man,  who  established  himself 
as  one  of  the  ablest  editors  of  his  time,  one  of  the  most 
authoritative  and  constructive  dramatic,  art,  and  literary 
critics,  and,  above  all,  as  the  trusted  friend,  confidant,  and 
adviser  of  practically  every  writer  of  his  time  that  mat- 
tered. Indeed,  Forster  was  a  greater  man  than  this  genera- 
tion imagines.  It  cannot  be  said  of  him,  as  it  was  said  by 
Johnson  of  Goldsmith:  "Sir,  he  was  a  great  man,  a  very 
great  man";  but  we  do  him  an  injustice  when  we  regard 
him  just  as  the  friend  of  Dickens,  only  that  and  nothing 
more.  I  am  not,  of  course,  intending  to  belittle  his  claim 
on  that  score;  what  I  do  want  to  insist  upon  is  that  if 
Forster  had  never  met  Dickens  he  would  still  have  had 
strong  claims  upon  our  grateful  remembrance.  He  was  very 
nearly  a  great  man,  for  certain.  A  little  more  play  of  fancy, 
a  little  less  of  the  Podsnappian  self-complacency,  and  he 
would  have  been  one  of  our  greatest  biographers.  As  it  is, 
he  wrote  some  biographies  that  we  could  not  afford  to  lose. 
He  did  not  produce  one  truly  great  work,  but  he  cannot  be 
denied  a  place  in  the  front  rank  of  second-class  biographers, 
even  if  his  Life  of  Dickens  does  not  (I  am  inclined  to  think 
it  does)  place  him  in  the  rear  rank  of  first-class  biographers. 
Add  to  the  fact,  the  tremendous  influence  he  wielded  both  as 
393 


394  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

Editor  of  the  "Examiner"  and  as  the  intimate  friend  of 
practically  every  contemporary  writer  of  any  pretensions 
at  all,  and  we  may  reasonably  echo  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald's 
expression  of  surprise  at  the  fact  that  Forster  has  never 
been  included  in  any  series  of  biographies  of  leading  writers. 
In  this  sense  Forster's  friendship  with  Dickens  has 
counted  rather  to  liis  disadvantage.  Dickens  was  a  man  of 
ovei-whelming  and  fascinating  personality,  and  he  has  been 
allowed  to  overshadow  Forster,  without  whose  staunch 
friendship,  loyal  service  in  business  and  family  affairs,  and 
reliable  advice  in  literary  matters,  he  might  not  have  been 
the  man  he  was.  For  it  was  advantageous  to  Dickens  very 
often  that  the  staid,  level-headed,  splendidly  loj'al  John 
Forster  was  inevitably  at  hand  to  sit  upon  his  coat  tails, 
as  it  were,  whenever  necessary.  By  the  present  generation 
Forster  is  too  lightly  dismissed  as  "the  friend  of  Dickens." 
He  would  be  proud  to  be  remembered  in  that  capacity,  of 
course,  but  we  are  unjust  to  him  when  we  think  only  of 
that.  His  editorship  of  the  "Examiner,"  and  his  indispen- 
sable books  prove  the  injustice  of  a  too  scant  dismissal  of 
him  as  "Dickens's  Boswell."  Boswell  was  little  more  than 
tolerated  by  Burke  and  Reynolds  and  Hawkins  and  others 
because  he  was  the  friend  of  their  common  friend,  Johnson. 
Forster  was  loved  and  trusted  by  Dickens's  friends,  or  most 
of  them,  as  he  was  by  Dickens  himself.  If  he  had  no  other 
claim  to  a  niche  in  the  Temple  of  Fame  he  still  has  this  one : 
that  he  was  the  champion  Friend  of  his  time.  He  was  a 
friend  of  Lamb's,  and  Elia  penned  many  delightful  letters 
to  him.  He  was  the  friend  of  Browning,  the  friend  of 
Lytton;  Carlyle  loved  him,  and  turned  to  him  as  he  turned 
to  nobody  else  save  Froude;  he  was  loved  by  Macready;  he 
was  the  friend  of  Ainsworth,  of  Tenn3'son,  of  Landor,  of 
Leigh  Hunt,  of  Proctor,  of  Gladstone — of  almost  everybody 
that  mattered.  On  Forster's  friendships,  Mr.  Richard  Ren- 
ton's  book  published  a  few  years  ago,  is  a  positive  revela- 
tion. That  author  points  out  this  very  noteworthy  fact: 
that,  with  one  exception,  all  Forster's  friendships  were  last- 
ing friendships.  The  exception  was  the  greatest  of  all — 
save  the  Dickens  friendship — namely,  that  with  Browning, 
the  quarrel  with  whom  was  the  most  lamentable  incident  in 
Forster's  life.     But  that  friendship  lasted  over  many  years, 


'.J*,  *r» 


John  Forstek 
From,   an    Emjrarinfj    by    C.    H.    Jecns 


THE   GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL     395 

through  much  storm  and  stress,  and  how  much  the  poet 
valued  it  is  proved  by  his  inscription  in  a  presentation  copy 
of  "Pauline":  "To  my  true  friend,  John  Forstcr,"  and  by 
his  inscription  in  a  copy  of  "Paracelsus" — "to  John  Fors- 
ter,  Esq.  (my  early  understander),  with  true  thanks  for  his 
generous  and  seasonable  public  confession  of  faith  in  me." 
Carlyle — to  whom  Porster  was  "Fuz" — knew  the  value  of 
this  remarkable  man.  How  completely  he  trusted  him  is 
proved  by  this  fact:  when  he  wrote  the  story  of  his  domestic 
Life  he  entrusted  the  manuscript  to  Froudc,  with  an  injunc- 
tion that  it  was  not  to  be  published  within  ten  years  of  his 
death,  and  then  in  Froude's  absolute  discretion — absolute 
discretion,  that  is,  save  only  that  he  might,  if  he  so  desired, 
consult  John  Forster. 

But  it  is  truly  extraordinary  how  famous  men  of  his  time 
relied  upon  Forster,  and  turned  to  him  unhesitatingly,  con- 
fident in  his  sound  sense  and  level-headedness.  And  note 
how  he  helped  and  encouraged  young  men  who  were  striving 
to  make  their  way,  and  merited  assistance.  Henry  Morley 
says: 

"The  best  actors,  painters,  poets,  novelists,  his- 
torians of  his  time  were  all  his  friends.  They  found 
constantly  in  the  'Examiner'  a  definite  appreciation  of 
their  work;  prompt,  hearty,  and  just  appreciation,  as 
distinguished  from  vague  praise  or  commonplaces  of 
reviewing.  TYhen  afterwards  they  met  their  critic,  came 
under  the  influence  of  his  strong  sympathy  with  all  that 
was  best  in  their  aims,  felt  the  sincerity  of  his  nature, 
and  learnt  to  rely  on  the  soundness  of  his  judgment, 
they  were  drawn  inevitably  into  friendship,  .  .  .  There 
was  not  a  young  man  of  letters  labouring  for  recogni- 
tion and  deserving  it  who  could  not  find  his  way  to  the 
grasp  of  John  Forster's  strong  hand,  be  encouraged  by 
his  ready  smile,  and  helped  by  his  sound  counsel.  He 
was  mtolerant  of  work  with  an  unworthy  aim,  and 
quickened  in  all  his  friends  'the  noble  appetite  for  what 
is  best,'  that  showed  itself  not  only  in  his  public  writ- 
ing, but  also  gave  worth  to  his  famihar  conversation." 

"Again  and  again,"  adds  Morley,  "the  hearts  of  earnest 


396  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

men  leapt  out  towards  him  who  had  been  the  first  to  know 
the  meaning  of  their  utterance,  and  with  bold  emphasis  had 
been  the  first  not  only  to  call  the  world  to  listen,  but  clearly 
to  set  forth  the  reason  of  his  faith  in  what  they  said  or 
did." 

And  yet  it  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  anything  like  a  satisfy- 
ing idea  of  what  manner  of  man  Forster  was.  "A  har- 
bitrary  cove,"  the  cabman  called  him,  and  so  he  was,  but 
assuredly  that  is  not  all.  The  prototype  of  Podsnap,  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  says,  but  surely  that  is  not  sufficient.  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald also  likens  him  to  Dr.  Johnson.  I  think  the  com- 
parison is  not  unhappy.  He  was  rough  and  uncompromis- 
ing, says  Mr.  Fitzgerald  again ;  lacking  in  breeding,  says 
Macready,  in  one  of  his  irritable  moods,  but  probably  with 
much  truth.  Sir  Theodore  Martin  says :  "Forster  seemed  to 
me  a  very  dictatorial  person."  Douglas  Jerrold,  picking  up 
a  pencil  stump,  remarked  that  it  was  like  Forster,  "short, 
thick,  and  full  of  lead,"  which  was  just  one  of  liis  facetious 
remarks,  but  contained  a  considerable  degree  of  truth.  Dr. 
John  Brown  said :  "Forster  is  a  *heavy  swell,'  and  has  always 
been  to  me  offensive,  and  he  has  no  sense  or  faculty  of 
humour." 

Macready  pays  tribute  again  and  again.  We  have  to 
make  allowance  for  that  Irish  quickness  of  temper  in  the 
famous  tragedian  which  he  himself  was  always  lamenting. 
In  his  Diary  we  read  some  most  outrageous  things  about 
man^-^  of  his  friends ;  most  of  them  come  under  his  lash  at 
times :  but  these  tilings  were  written  during  his  "paddies," 
and  must  not  be  taken  alone  as  indicating  his  real  feelings. 
And  so,  though  he  writes  in  bitterest  vein  about  Forster  at 
times,  the  Diary  as  a  whole  conclusively  proves  his  affection 
for  the  man.  In  it  may  be  found  many  proofs  of  Forster's 
loyal  friendship.  Hablot  Knight  Browne  did  not  come 
within  the  same  degree  of  friendship  as  Macready,  but  he 
was  a  friend  of  Forster's,  and  the  following  letter  throws 
a  light  on  the  latter's  capacity  for  rendering  unassuming 
service : 

"My  dear  Browne, 

"They    are   getting   a   little   anxious   at  White 
Friars.    I  enclose  you  a  cheque — you  charged  too  little 


THE  GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL      397 

for  the  design  of  the  cover.  I  took  the  liberty  of 
changing  the  five  guineas  into  eiglit  guineas,  and  you 
will  find  a  cheque  hereto  corresponding.  This  liberty 
I  am  sure  you  will  excuse,  and  believe  me,  my  dear 
Browne,  always  and  sincerely  yours, 

"John  Forstee." 

And  we  have  Bulwer  Lytton's  testimony  as  follows : 

"A  most  sterling  man  with  an  intellect  at  once  mas- 
sive and  delicate.  Few  indeed  have  his  strong  practical 
sense  and  sound  judgment;  fewer  still  unite  with  such 
qualities  his  exquisite  appreciation  of  latent  beauties  in 
literary  art.  Hence,  in  ordinary  life  there  is  no  safer 
adviser  about  literary  work,  especially  poetry ;  no  more 
refined  critic.  A  large  heart  naturally  accompanies  so 
masculine  an  understanding.  He  has  a  rare  capacity 
for  affection  which  embraces  many  friendships  without 
loss  of  depth  or  warmth  in  one.  Most  of  my  literary 
contemporaries  are  his  intimate  companions,  and  their 
jealousies  of  each  other  do  not  diminish  their  trust  in 
him.  More  than  any  living  critic  he  has  served  to  es- 
tablish reputations.  Tennyson  and  Browning  owe  him 
much  in  their  literary  careers.  Me,  I  think,  he  served 
in  that  way  less  than  any  of  his  other  friends,  but 
indeed  I  know  of  no  critic  to  whom  I  have  been  mucli 
indebted  for  any  position  I  hold  in  literature.  In  more 
private  matters  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  his  counsel. 
His  reading  is  extensive.  What  faults  he  has  lie  on  the 
surface.  He  is  sometimes  bluff  to  rudeness,  but  all  such 
faults  of  manner  (and  they  are  liis  only  ones)  are  but 
trifling  inequalities  in  a  nature  solid  and  valuable  as  a 
block  of  gold." 

That,  I  think,  is  the  best  picture  of  John  Forster  that 
has  been  drawn.  "Harbitrary  cove"?  So  he  was,  but  how 
easy,  and,  alas !  how  common,  it  is  to  take  hold  of  some  catch 
phrase  like  that  and  repeat  it  until  the  world  comes  to 
think  that  it  says  all  there  is  to  be  said.  Forster's  arbitra- 
riness was  really  no  moi-e  than  a  mannerism.  He  was,  as 
Lytton  says,  a  man  of  mascuhne  understanding,  a  man  with 


398  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

a  rare  capacity  for  affection  whicli  embraced  many  friend- 
ships without  loss  of  depth  or  warmth  in  one,  a  rare  literary 
critic  utterly  devoid  of  petty  jealousies,  who  helped  to  make 
many  a  man  and  never  lifted  his  hand  to  unmake  or  to  injure 
any  man,  a  man  of  staunch  loyalty,  and  sound  integrity,  a 
man  to  be  relied  upon  implicitly  in  any  transaction. 

Dr.  John  Browne  says  that  Forster  had  no  sense  of 
humour.  We  may  doubt  that  of  a  man  who  was  a  friend 
of  Charles  Lamb,  Tom  Hood,  Douglas  Jerrold,  Mark 
Lemon,  Jolin  Leech,  R.  H.  Barham,  and  Charles  Dickens. 
We  may  doubly  doubt  it  of  a  man  so  full  of  human  sym- 
pathy as  he  was.  Macready  says  that  Forster  was  lacking 
in  breeding.  Very  likely  he  had  not  the  manners  of  a 
D'Orsay.  There  was  no  veneer  about  him.  He  was  the 
solid,  unvarnished  oak,  rough  cut,  but  finely  grained,  solid 
and  steady.  Mr.  Ren  ton  sums  up  his  character  very  aptly 
in  the  one  word  "reliable."  Before  all  else  and  above  all 
else,  he  was  reliable.  The  famous  authors  of  his  time,  the 
famous  artists,  the  famous  actors,  yes,  and  the  famous 
statesmen  relied  upon  liim  implicitly,  and  he  never  failed 
them. 

Yates  says:  "Forster,  partly  owing  to  natural  tempera^ 
ment,  partly  to  harassing  official  work,  and  ill-health,  was 
almost  as  much  over,  as  Dickens  was  under  their  respective 
years."  Yates  knew  Forster  only  in  the  later  years  of  the 
latter's  life,  but  his  remark  applies  to  the  man  of  any 
period.  True,  Forster  writes  of  the  joyous  days  in  the  late 
'thirties  and  the  'forties  with  a  sigh  of  regret  for  a  day 
that  is  dead,  but  I  never  read  of  those  boisterous  frolics 
which  he  records  without  picturing  him  as  the  most  sober 
and  serious  member  of  the  party.  When  I  read  of  the  mem- 
orable trip  to  Cornwall — Dickens,  Maclise,  Stanfield,  and 
Forster — and  the  merrymaking  right  into  the  wee  small 
hours,  I  always  picture  Forster  as  the  member  of  the  party 
upon  whom  the  others  would  rely  for  a  reminder  when  bed- 
time came.  Not  that  I  mean  to  suggest  that  he  was  a  drag 
upon  the  wheels  of  enjoyment,  but  he  was  what  Dickens 
would  call  a  "buttoned-up  man."  "All  buttoned-up  men 
are  weighty,"  says  the  novelist,  and  that  is  exactly  what 
Forster  was.  On  these  merry  occasions  he  was  the  most 
ponderous — the  most  weighty  man  of  the  party,  and  though 


THE   GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL      399 

he  entered  into  the  enjoyment  thoroughly,  it  is  diiBcult  to 
picture  him  giving  way  to  that  abandon  that  characterised 
Dickens  and  MacHse,  for  instance.  Dickens  records  that 
during  the  Cornwall  trip,  "the  luggage  was  in  Forster's  de- 
partment." It  is  symbolical.  On  this  point  Yates  confirms 
me:  "Though  Forster's  shrewd  common-sense,  sound  judg- 
ment, and  deep  affection  for  his  friend  commanded,  as  was 
right,  Dickens's  loving  and  grateful  acceptance  of  his  views, 
and  though  the  communion  between  them  was  never  for  a 
moment  weakened,  it  was  not  as  a  companion  *in  his  lighter 
hour'  that  Dickens,  in  his  latter  days  looked  on  Forster. 
..."  Though  we  must  not  forget  that  in  his  earlier 
days  Forster  was  the  companion,  with  Maclise  and  Ains- 
worth,  and  the  Landseers,  of  all  the  "lighter  hours." 

The  friendship  with  Dickens  is  really  something  of  a 
puzzle,  and  I  hope  I  run  no  risk  of  being  misunderstood 
when  I  say  that  I  think  it  was  largely  due  to  Dickens's  per- 
ception of  worth,  and  his  abihty,  for  worth's  sake,  to  ignore 
qualities  which,  in  the  best  of  friends,  may  be  trying.  Never 
would  Forster  play  second  fiddle  anywhere,  if  he  could  help 
it,  Mr.  Fitzgerald  says.  He  was  a  despot,  he  was  dictato- 
rial— offensively  so  to  those  who  could  not  or  would  not 
look  beneath  the  surface.  I  am  not  prepared  to  assert  that 
Dickens  was  a  despot,  but  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  he  had  to  be  "cock  of  the  walk"  in  any  company. 
Friendship  between  two  such  men,  strong,  lasting,  heart-to- 
heart  friendship  is  not  common.  And  seeing  that  Forster 
had  faults  of  manner  which  Dickens  had  not,  seeing  that 
undoubtedly  the  real  nature  and  charm  of  the  man  were 
beneath  the  surface,  there  may  be  justification  for  the  asser- 
tion that  in  the  matter  of  tolerance  Dickens  had  to  give  more 
than  he  demanded.  The  friendship  puzzled  many  contem- 
poraries.    James  Payn  says: 

*'In  friendship,  which  in  all  other  points  must  needs 
be  frank  and  open,  this  problem  often  remains  un- 
solved— namely,  the  friendship  of  one's  friend  for  some 
other  man.  D.  and  E.  have  the  most  intimate  rela- 
tions with  one  another,  but  for  the  life  of  him,  E. 
cannot  understand  what  D.  sees  in  F.  to  so  endear  him 
to  him.    This  was  what  many  of  Dickens's  friends,  and 


400  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

certainly  the  world  at  large,  said  of  Forster.  It  is  not 
my  business,  nor  is  it  in  my  power  to  explain  the  riddle; 
I  rarely  met  them  together  without  witnessing  some 
sparring  between  them — and  sometimes  without  the 
gloves.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  known  Forster  to 
pay  some  compliments  to  'The  Inimitable'  in  his  patron- 
ising way  which  the  other  would  acknowledge  in  his 
drollest  manner.  It  is  certain  that  Forster  took  the 
utmost  interest  in  Dickens,  even  to  the  extent  of  seeing 
everything  he  wrote  through  the  press,  and  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  Dickens's  regard  for  him  I  have  the 
most  positive  proof.  I  have  already  said  that  Dickens 
once  wrote  to  me  spellmg  the  word  Foster  (in  Foster 
Brothers)  with  an  r  'because  I  am  always  thinking 
of  my  friend  Forster.  Long  afterwards,  in  acknowl- 
edging a  service  which  I  had  been  fortunately  able  to 
do  for  him,  in  terms  far  more  generous  than  it  de- 
served, he  actually  signed  the  letter,  not  Charles 
Dickens,  but  John  Forster!  When  the  biography  of 
the  former  appeared,  and  its  editor  (sic)  was  accused 
of  misrepresenting  himself  as  standing  in  a  nearer  re- 
lation to  Dickens  than  he  really  was,  I  thought  it  only 
fair  to  Forster  to  send  him  those  two  letters,  with 
which — though  of  course  he  had  no  need  of  the  corro- 
boration on  such  a  matter  from  without — he  expressed 
himself  greatly  pleased." 

Macready  describes  one  of  the  contests  in  which  the  gloves 
were  removed.     Under  date  August  16,  1840,  he  writes: 

"Went  to  dine  with  Dickens,  and  was  witness  of  a 
most  painful  scene  after  dinner.  Forster,  Maclise,  and 
myself  were  the  guests.  Forster  got  to  one  of  his  head- 
long streams  of  talk  (which  he  thinks  argument),  and 
waxed  warm,  and  at  last  some  sharp  observation  led 
to  personal  retorts  between  liim  and  Dickens.  He  dis- 
played his  usual  want  of  tact,  and  Dickens  flew  into 
so  violent  a  passion  as  quite  to  forget  himself,  and  give 
Forster  to  understand  that  he  was  in  his  house  which 
he  should  be  glad  if  he  would  leave.  Forster  behaved 
very  f oolislily.     I  stopped  him ;  spoke  to  both  of  them, 


THE   GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL      401 

and  observed  that  for  an  angry  instant  they  were  about 
to  destroy  a  friendship  valuable  to  both.  I  drew  from 
Dickens  the  admission  that  he  had  spoken  in  passion 
and  would  not  have  said  what  he  said  could  he  have 
reflected;  but  he  added  that  he  could  not  answer  for 
his  temper  under  Forster's  provocation,  and  that  he 
should  be  just  the  same  again.  Forster  behaved  very 
•wea'kly;  would  not  accept  the  repeated  acknowledg- 
ment communicated  to  him  that  Dickens  regretted  the 
passion,  etc.,  but  stayed,  skimbling-skambling,  and  at 
last,  finding  that  he  could  obtain  no  more,  made  a  sort 
of  speech  accepting  what  he  had  before  declined.  He 
was  silent  and  not  recovered — no  wonder! — during  the 
whole  evening.  Mrs.  Dickens  had  gone  out  in  tears. 
It  was  a  very  painful  scene." 

All  of  which  proves  very  little  more  than  that  both 
Dickens  and  Forster  were  essentially  human.  But  in  face 
of  these  facts,  I  think  it  may  be  said  that  the  friendship 
of  these  two  men  is  very  positive  proof  of  the  possession 
by  both  of  the  capacity  for  lookmg  beneath  the  surface 
and  seeing  the  true  worth  of  the  friend. 

In  November  1847  Macready  writes  in  his  Diary:  "For- 
ster dined  to-day ;  was  very  sorry  to  hear  him  speak  as  if 
the  long  and  intimate  friendship  between  himself  and  Dickens 
was  likely  to  terminate  or  very  much  relax.  They  have 
both  faults  with  their  good  qualities,  but  they  have  been 
too  familiar.  I  hope  Dickens  is  not  capricious — not  spoiled ; 
he  has,  however,  great  excuse."  No,  Dickens  was  not  ca- 
pricious :  that  charge  was  never  brought  against  him.  Nor 
was  he  spoiled,  though  no  man  ever  had  greater  excuse. 
Two  strong  natures  had  clashed  again,  and  there  had  been 
another  "sparring  bout,"  and  Forster's  pompous  dignity 
had  been  hurt.  The  friendship  was  to  last  another  twenty- 
two  years  and  more,  and  was  to  grow  closer  and  closer,  only 
to  be  broken  by  death.   .    .    . 

"And"  (says  Mr.  Renton)  "when  at  last  the  cords 
were  loosed;  the  link  snapped  that  had  bound  each  to 
other  for  just  upon  forty  years,  what  did  it  mean  to 
Forster.? 


402  THE   DICKENS   CIRCLE 

"Briefly  this — 

"There  were  not  many  to  carry  Charles  Dickens  to 
his  burial.  His  nearest  and  dearest  only  and  a  friend 
or  two  well-nigh  as  near  and  dear. 

"Among  the  latter,  the  tall,  still  burly  figure,  bowed 
through  grief  and  disease,  of  John  Forster  was  sadly 
conspicuous.  Gone  all  that  was  autocratic  and  domi- 
neering about  him ;  gone  the  dignity,  the  imperiousness, 
the  harsh  'commandeering'  of  all  else  human  to  liis  own 
will  and  pleasure. 

"There  remained  only  the  true,  inner,  natural  man, 
shaken  with  a  sorrow  such  as  is  not  given  to  every 
man  to  feel.  Himself  hopelessly  racked  with  physical 
pain,  he  appeared  almost  as  if  he  were  burying  the 
better  part  of  himself.  .  .  .  He  had  lost  his  chief 
object  in  existence;  which,  until  he  himself  went  to  join 
his  friend,  was,  I  am  convinced,  mainly  sustained  in 
and  by  the  occupation  of  writing  that  friend's  life." 

"He  had  lost  his  chief  object  in  existence."  Verily,  I 
believe  Mr.  Renton  does  not  exaggerate.  From  the  days  of 
their  first  acquaintance  Forster  loved  Dickens  with  at  least 
a  brother's  love.  There  was  an  air  of  patronage  in  his 
affection,  but  it  was  the  patronage  of  an  elder  brother.  For, 
as  Yates  says,  though  they  were  born  in  the  same  year, 
Forster  was  older  than  his  years,  and  Dickens  younger.  He 
took  Dickens  under  his  wing,  and  positively  would  have 
stood  up  against  the  world  in  defence  of  his  friend.  He  was 
constantly  rendering  service.  He  negotiated  for  his  friend 
in  the  most  intimate  and  delicate  domestic  affairs;  he  nego- 
tiated Dickens's  business  affairs  for  him;  he  served  him  early 
and  late  for  the  sake  of  the  love  that  he  bore  him.  Indeed, 
he  was  possessed  of  a  very  rare  capacity  for  friendship. 
No  man  that  ever  breathed  was  possessed  of  a  more  sturdy 
independence,  had  less  of  toadyism  in  his  nature,  though  he 
was  the  friend  of  almost  every  famous  man  of  his  time; 
yet  in  tliis  particular  case  he  was  guilty  of  sometliing  like 
idolatry.  He  would  have  quarrelled  with  almost  all  his 
other  friends  for  Dickens's  sake.  And  maybe  that  air  of 
patronage  which  sometimes  appeared  in  his  relations  with 
the  novelist  was  consciously   assumed  in  the  true  English 


THE   GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL      403 

spirit  (of  which  he  was  the  very  embodiment)  to  hide  from 
the  world  the  real  depth  of  his  feelings.  He  was  jealous, 
as  all  men  are  when  in  love.  He  resented  it  when  any  other 
man  gained  the  confidence  of  Dickens.  He  was  even  jealous 
of  another's  popularity.  Did  he  not  take  umbrage  at  the 
success  of  Ainsworth's  "Jack  Sheppard,"  simply  because 
it  bade  fair  for  a  time  to  rival  the  popularity  of  Dickens's 
books ! 

And  Dickens  was  as  loyal  a  friend  as  was  Forster.  He 
knew  the  failings  of  the  "Lincolnshire  mammoth,"  as  he 
called  liis  friend,  but  he  knew  his  worth  thoroughly,  and 
he  accepted  Forster's  patronage  with  good-humour  and  with 
a  complete  appreciation  of  the  devotion  that  was  ever  at 
his  service.  There  are  several  instances  on  record  in  which 
he  showed  his  loyalty.  Take  the  case  of  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton. 
In  his  "Life  of  Landor"  Forster  dismissed  that  lady's  friend- 
ship with  the  poet  in  a  single  sentence.  It  was  grossly  un- 
fair, but  a  typical  instance  of  that  John  Bullish  prejudice 
which  was  his  greatest  failing.  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  declared 
that  Forster  acted  in  this  case  out  of  jealousy,  and  she 
said  that  he  used  the  "Life"  as  "a  vehicle  for  his  own  lauda- 
tion— diverging  all  other  friendships  to  aggrandise  and 
augment  his  own."  Wilkie  Collins  said  exactly  the  same  thing 
about  the  Life  of  Dickens,  and  we  will  take  note  of  the 
charge  presently.  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  was  very  much  hurt, 
and  when,  at  Dickens's  request,  she  wrote  a  review  of  the 
book  for  All  the  Year  Round,  she  commenced  her  article: 
"The  Life  of  Walter  Savage  Landor  has  yet  to  be  written." 
This  could  not  have  appeared  in  an  anonymous  magazine 
without  the  inference  that  it  expressed  the  Editor's  opinion. 
Dickens  was  too  loyal  to  his  friend.     He  wrote  to  the  lady: 

"Although  your  article  on  our  old  friend  is  inter- 
esting as  a  piece  of  personal  remembrance,  it  does  not 
satisfy  my  desires  as  a  review  of  Forster's  book.  It 
could  hardly  be  otherwise  than  painful  to  Forster  that 
I,  one  of  his  oldest  literary  friends,  and  certainly,  of 
all  others,  the  most  intimate  and  confidential,  should 
insert  in  these  pages  an  account  of  Landor  without  a 
word  of  commendation  of  a  biography  that  has  caused, 
to  my  knowledge,  a  world  of  care  and  trouble.     I  find 


404  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

from  your  letter  to  my  son  that  you  do  not  tliink 
well  of  the  said  book.  Admitting  that  his  life  was 
to  be  written  at  all,  I  DO.  And  it  is  because  I  think 
well  of  it,  and  wish  highly  to  commend  it  on  what  I 
deem  to  be  its  deserts,  that  I  am  staggered  and  stopped 
short  by  your  paper  and  fear  I  must  turn  to  and  write 
another  in  its  stead.  I  want  you  to  understand  the 
case  on  my  own  presentation  of  it,  and  hence  I  trouble 
you  with  this  note." 

And  so,  he  wrote  the  review  himself,  nevertheless  paying 
Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  for  the  article  which  he  did  not  use. 
And  we  have  shown  how,  in  the  dispute  with  Bentley  in 
1839,  Dickens  stood  loyally  by  Forster,  and  very  nearly 
quarrelled  with  Ainsworth. 

It  would  be  absurd  to  attempt  to  follow  Dickens  and 
Forster  through  their  friendship  of  thirtj^-four  years.  In 
that  letter  to  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  just  quoted  Dickens  de- 
scribed himself  as  one  of  Forster's  oldest  literary  friends, 
and  "certainly,  of  all  others,  the  most  confidential."  How 
far  he  was  in  Forster's  confidence  there  is  no  knowing,  but 
it  is  certain  that  he  confided  in  Forster  as  he  confided  in 
no  one  else.  Forster,  I  think,  had  not  the  need  for  friend- 
ship in  anything  like  the  degree  that  Dickens  had  it.  True- 
hearted,  tender-hearted  he  was,  but  he  had  not  that  almost 
Celtic  emotionalism  that  characterised  his  friend.  Even  if 
he  had  been  a  novelist  he  could  never  have  written  the  death 
of  Little  Nell.  In  that  sense  he  was  even  more  English 
than  Dickens.  There  was  in  him  that  typically  English 
self-consciousness — fear  of  wearing  liis  heart  on  his  sleeve 
— that  was  not  in  Dickens.  He  lived  in  the  material  world 
far  more  than  Dickens  did,  and  though  the  latter  was  cer- 
tainly no  fool  in  business  matters,  it  meant  very  much  to 
him  that  he  had  a  true  and  trustworthy  friend  always  at 
hand  to  advise  and  assist  and  to  conduct  his  business  affairs 
for  him.  Living  so  strenuous  an  imaginative  life  as  he  did, 
Forster's  friendship  was  of  incalculable  value  to  him. 
Indeed,  without  it,  I  doubt  whether  his  gifts  would  have 
remained  so  fresh  as  they  did,  his  imagination  so  vigorous 
and  unfettered.  From  the  very  beginning,  Forster,  whom 
he  described  in  his  will   as   his   "dear   and  trusty   friend," 


THE  GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL     405 

was  the  man  to  whom  he  turned  in  everything.  In  disputes 
with  pubHshers  it  was  Forster  who  was  his  champion  and 
negotiator,  and  in  the  saddest  event  of  his  hfe  it  was  the 
same  friend  who  acted  on  his  behalf.  So  also  was  it  to 
Forster  that  he  turned  first  of  all  when  he  wanted  to  help 
Leigh  Hunt,  or  the  family  of  Douglas  Jerrold.  To  Forster 
he  sent  all  his  proofs ;  it  was  Forster's  advice  in  respect 
thereof  that  he  valued  most;  it  was  Forster  who  saw  his 
books  through  the  press  and  negotiated  with  illustrators 
when  he  was  abroad ;  and  it  was  Forster  whom  he  named  as 
his  executor  in  conjunction  with  Miss  Hogarth. 

It  is  perhaps  curious  that  in  his  published  letters  to 
Forster  we  do  not  find  those  protestations  of  friendship 
that  we  find  in  letters  to  all  other  friends,  but  that  may 
well  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  nearly  all  such  letters 
appear  in  Forster's  book,  and  were  sub-edited  by  him. 
There  is  one  exception,  however.  In  1845  Forster's  only 
brother  died,  and  Dickens  wrote  to  his  friend  from  Genoa: 

"I  feel  the  distance  between  us  now,  indeed.  I  would 
to  Heaven,  my  dearest  friend,  that  I  could  remind  you 
in  a  manner  more  lively  and  affectionate  than  this  dull 
sheet  of  paper  can  put  on,  that  you  have  a  Brother 
left.  One  bound  to  you  by  ties  as  strong  as  Nature 
ever  forged.  By  ties  never  to  be  broken,  weakened, 
changed  in  any  way — but  to  be  knotted  tighter  up,  if 
that  be  possible,  until  the  same  end  comes  to  them  as 
has  come  to  these.  That  end  but  the  bright  beginning 
of  a  happier  union,  I  believe;  and  have  never  more 
strongly  and  religiously  believed  (and  oh!  Forster, 
with  what  a  sore  heart  I  have  thanked  God  for  it) 
than  when  that  shadow  has  fallen  on  my  own  hearth, 
and  made  it  cold  and  dark  as  suddenly  as  in  the  home 
of  that  poor  girl  you  tell  me  of.  ...  I  have  many 
things  to  say,  but  cannot  say  them  now.  Your  attached 
and  loving  friend  for  life,  and  for,  I  hope,  beyond  it." 

But,  indeed,  such  protestations  were  unnecessary ;  the 
understanding  between  them  was  too  thorough.  Much  more 
curious  is  it  that  Dickens  never  dedicated  a  book  to  Forster. 
The   latter,   however,   dedicated   his   Life   of  Goldsmith   to 


406  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

Dickens,    and    he    was    godfather    to    his    friend's    eldest 
daughter. 

But,  of  course,  the  consummation  of  this  friendship  is 
the  book,  the  Avriting  of  which  Mr.  Renton  sa^'s  was  the 
main  solace  of  Forster's  last  few  years.  It  was  the  ful- 
filment of  Dickens's  wish — of  a  sacred  trust  really.  In  1847 
the  novelist  first  expressed  the  wish  that  if  Forster  should 
outUve  liim  he  should  write  liis  biography,  and  Forster  sa3's : 
"though,  long  before  his  death,  I  had  ceased  to  believe  it 
likely  that  I  should  survive  to  write  about  him,  he  had 
never  withdrawn  the  wish  at  this  early  time  strongly  ex- 
pressed, or  the  confidences,  not  only  then,  but  to  the  very 
eve  of  his  death  reposed  in  me,  that  was  to  enable  me  to 
fulfil  it."  The  writing  of  that  book  must  have  been  tor- 
ture to  Forster,  not  merely  because  Dickens's  death  had 
meant  the  tearing  away  of  a  part  of  his  very  self,  but  be- 
cause he  was  in  wretched  health  and  nearing  liis  own  end. 
It  seems  to  me  to  be  reflected  in  the  book.  Always,  in  the 
record  of  the  early  days  of  their  friendship  there  is  a  note 
of  sadness,  as  though  the  writer  were  sighing  for  the  days 
when  the  health  and  strength  of  early  manhood  made  all 
the  world  so  bright  and  gay,  when  all  was  promise — bright 
promise,  and  the  sun  shone  sixteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four.  And  in  the  record  of  later  years,  there  is  the  note  of 
tiredness,  not  of  disillusionment,  but  of  sadness,  and  depres- 
sion. But  it  was  a  sacred  task  conscientiously  carried  out. 
The  book  is  criticised  very  freely,  and  when  all  has  been 
said  there  is,  and  there  can  be,  no  answer  to  the  question: 
"Who  else  could  have  written  it?"  One  recent  critic  com- 
pared it,  to  its  disadvantage,  with  Boswell's  immortal  book. 
Let  us  note  Dickens's  views  on  the  pomt.  They  are  con- 
tained in  a  letter  written  to  Forster  liimself  in  1848: 

"I  question  very  much"  (he  sa3's)  "whether  it  would 
have  been  a  good  tiling  for  every  great  man  to  have 
had  his  Boswell,  inasmuch  that  I  tliink  that  two  Bos- 
weUs,  or  three  at  the  most,  would  have  made  great  men 
extraordinarily  false,  and  would  have  set  them  on 
always  playing  a  part,  and  would  have  made  distin- 
guished people  about  them  for  ever  restless  and  dis- 
trustful.   I  can  imagine  a  succession  of  Boswclls  bring- 


Chai:li:s  r>i(  kkns 

(1868) 
From   a  Photograph    by   Ben    Gurney   of   New    York 


THE   GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL      407 

Ing  about  a  tremendous  state  of  falsehood  in  society, 
and  playing  the  very  deuce  with  confidence  and  friend- 
ship." 

With  which,  I  tliink,  we  need  not  hesitate  to  agree.  In 
that  same  letter,  Dickens,  referring  to  his  friend's  Life  of 
Goldsmith,  says:  "I  never  will  hear  the  biography  com- 
pared with  Boswell's  except  under  vigorous  protest.  For 
I  do  say  that  it  is  mere  folly  to  put  into  opposite  scales  a 
book,  however  amusing  and  curious,  written  by  an  uncon- 
scious coxcomb  like  that,  and  one  which  surveys  and  grandly 
understands  the  characters  of  all  the  illustrious  company 
that  move  in  it." 

It  is  worth  while  bearing  this  in  mind  when  we  think  of 
comparing  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens  with  Boswell's  Life 
of  Johnson,  The  letter  concludes  with  these  words:  "I 
desire  no  better  for  my  fame,  when  my  personal  dustiness 
shall  be  past  the  control  of  my  love  of  order,  than  such  a 
biographer  and  such  a  critic." 

I  do  not  share  Dickens's  opinion  of  Boswell,  but  it  is 
difficult  to  controvert  the  suggestion  that  too  many  Bos- 
wells  would  bring  about  a  state  of  insincerity  in  society 
that  would  destroy  the  value  of  biographies  altogether.  In 
any  case,  such  a  comparison  as  that  under  notice  is  futile 
for  this  reason :  that  Dickens  was  not  a  Johnson.  He  was  a 
great  man,  but  of  a  totally  different  type.  Forster  tells 
us  that  Dickens  had  no  conversation.  A  recent  critic  has 
suggested  that  that  was  a  "get  out,"  if  I  may  be  permitted 
the  colloquialism.  It  was  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  is  per- 
fectly true  that  Dickens  had  no  conversation  in  the  real 
sense.  Many  who  knew  him  have  written  about  him,  and 
they  all  tell  us  that  he  was  the  life  and  soul  of  any  com- 
pany he  was  in;  but  I  have  never  yet  come  across  a  sugges- 
tion that  he  shone  in  conversation.  He  was  too  restless  to 
do  that,  and — he  was  lacking  in  education.  Splendid  letter- 
writer  he  certainly  was ;  but  the  qualities  that  make  a  good 
letter-writer  do  not  necessarily  make  a  good  conversation- 
alist. By  contrast,  Johnson's  letters  are  rarely  of  any 
special  value. 

Forster  has  been  criticised  for  not  having  given  us  more 
facts  than  he  did.     There  is  very  little  in  the  criticism.     If 


408  THE  DICKENS  CIRCLE 

we  bear  in  mind  liow  near  to  Dickens's  life  he  was  writing 
we  must  surely  admit  that  he  omitted  very  little  that  he 
might  have  included.  True,  he  did  not  mention  all  the 
houses  in  which  his  friend  lived  or  stayed,  but  is  that  a 
normal  duty  of  a  biographer?  Surely  his  duty  is,  in  the 
main,  to  deal  only  with  facts  that  affect  the  trend  of  his 
subject's  life,  or  help  to  shape  his  character?  To  record 
that  Dickens  once  stayed  at  Hyde  Park  Place,  for  instance, 
or  to  indicate  every  particular  house  in  which  he  lived,  is 
the  legitimate  business  of  a  Robert  Allbut  or  an  F.  G. 
Kitton,  but  not  of  a  Forster.  Such,  at  any  rate,  is  my 
submission.  I  do  not  think  that  an  instance  can  be  pointed 
to  of  Forster  having  omitted  a  vital  or  essential  fact.  Some 
say  that  he  should  have  told  us  more  about  Dickens's  domes- 
tic trouble.  Admitting  that  it  is  our  business,  it  again  has 
to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Forster  wrote  within  a  very  few 
years  of  Dickens's  death,  when  Mrs.  Dickens  and  most  of 
her  children  were  still  alive.  Of  course,  here  arises  the  old 
difficulty.  It  has  been  said  that  the  friend,  writing  too  soon 
after  a  man's  death,  cannot  deal  frankly  and  fully  with  the 
facts  that  he  knows,  whilst,  later  on,  there  is  no  one  who 
has  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  facts  or  knew  the  man.  On 
which  argument,  no  biography  should  ever  be  written..  But 
the  difficulty  is  a  real  one,  and  it  must  have  handicapped 
Forster  considerably.  He  erred  on  the  right  side — on  the 
side  of  caution.  Nevertheless,  there  were  incidents  in 
Dickens's  life,  illuminative  incidents,  that  might  well  have 
been  recorded  more  fully.  The  story  of  the  quarrel  with 
Thackeray,  for  instance,  might  have  been  told  without 
offence  to  any  one.  The  story  of  Dickens's  interest  in  the 
Italian  Refugees  of  1849  might  have  been,  ought  to  have 
been  told.  It  is  simply  referred  to.  Herein  lies  one  of 
Forster's  greatest  faults.  He  assumes  more  knowledge  in 
his  reader  than  he  has  any  justification  for  assuming;  he 
writes  more  for  his  own  circle  than  for  the  man  in  the  street. 
If  he  mentions  a  dinner  to  Macready,  he  speaks  of  it  as 
though  he  were  simply  recalling  for  the  pleasure  of  a  few 
friends  a  happy  event  in  wliich  they  and  he  took  part.  So 
does  he  speak  of  great  men  with  whom  Dickens  was 
acquainted  as  though  all  his  readers  knew  them  as  well  as 
he  did. 


THE   GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL      409 

But  the  most  common  criticism  of  Forster  is  that  which 
Mrs.  Lynn  Linton  expressed,  namely,  that  he  glorified  him- 
self at  the  expense  of  Dickens's  other  friends.  It  is  certain 
that  some  of  Dickens's  friends  were  offended  by  Forster's 
treatment  of  them — Shirley  Brooks  records  that  Wilkie 
Collins  and  G.  H.  Lewes  described  the  book  to  him  as  "The 
Life  of  John  Forster,  with  notices  of  Dickens" — and  in  one 
or  two  cases  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  had  cause  for 
feeling  hurt,  but  I  cannot  see  any  justice  in  the  criticism 
of  the  principle  upon  which  he  worked.  It  seems  to  me 
that  he  was  bound  to  reason  somewhat  like  this:  "Dickens 
was  a  very  exceptional  man,  particularly  in  regard  to  the 
number  of  his  friendships.  I  might  appeal  to  them  for  ma- 
terial. I  should  be  swamped — overwhelmed.  My  task  would 
become  herculean.  My  health  is  bad;  I  am  nearing  the  end 
of  my  life;  it  is  even  doubtful  if  I  shall  live  to  complete 
this  new  task.  But  I  knew  Dickens  more  intimately  and 
over  a  longer  period  than  anybody  else;  I  loved  him  prob- 
ably better  than  anybody  else,  and  certainly  better  than  I 
ever  loved  any  other  man.  He  wrote  to  me  more  frequently, 
more  fully,  and  more  intimately  than  to  anj^body  else. 
From  the  days  when  he  first  become  an  author,  right  down 
to  the  very  end,  there  was  nothing  in  his  life  in  respect  of 
which  I  was  not  his  confidant;  he  had  no  interest  in  which 
I  was  not  associated  with  him.  I  saw  him  in  the  company 
of  all  his  other  friends ;  I  saw  him  in  every  circumstance 
and  in  every  mood.  After  all,  who  is  there  that  could 
amplify  my  knowledge  of  him,  or  usefully  extend  the  material 
that  I  have  in  my  possession  now?" 

Wliat  objection  can  there  be  to  such  a  point  of  view.? 
We  are  told  that  Forster  refused  to  make  use  of  letters 
addressed  by  Dickens  to  other  friends,  and  that  in  doing  so 
he  was  actuated  by  jealousy.  As  a  general  charge  it  is 
sheer  nonsense.  Wilkie  Collins  uttered  the  indictment,  and 
possibly  he  had  some  personal  grounds  for  it,  but  it  was  not 
true  in  a  general  sense,  and  no  one  who  knows  Forster 
would  utter  it  now.  The  man  had  too  big  a  mind  and  too 
big  a  heart.  And  when  it  comes  to  the  point,  would  these 
letters  have  helped  him  to  any  material  extent?  Dickens's 
letters  to  Wilkie  Collins  have  been  published.  Do  they 
supply  any  vital  deficiencies  in  Forster's  book?     A  reprc- 


410  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

sentatlve  sdeetion  of  letters  addressed  to  other  friends  has 
been  pubHshed.  How  far  do  they  suppl}^  deficiencies  ?  There 
may  be  one  or  two  that  help  to  illumine  Dickens's  character 
for  us,  but  read  the  letters  that  Forster  quotes,  and  say  to 
what  extent  Forster's  book,  as  a  hiography,  would  have 
been  improved  if  he  had  had  tliis  mass  of  additional  ma- 
terial in  his  hands.  His  task,  already  a  heav3"  one,  really 
a  burden  borne  for  the  sake  of  the  love  he  had  had  for  his 
friend,  would  have  been  enormously  increased  to  very  little 
effect. 

I  see  no  point  in  the  suggestion  that  Forster  should  hav^j 
made  plentiful  use  of  other  people's  impressions  of  Dickens. 
That  is  not  how  biography  is  written — except,  of  course, 
when  the  biographer  is  writing  of  a  man  he  never  saw.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  such  material  would  have  beeen  sufficient 
for  a  big  volume  in  itself,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Forster  was  seeking  solely  to  give  the  material  facts  in 
Dickens's  life,  and  to  reveal  his  friend's  personality  as  he 
knew  it.  Was  it  not  his  proper  aim,  and  did  he  fail  in  his 
purpose  ? 

The  argument  that  Forster  did  not  go  sufficiently  into 
detail  is  not  a  weighty  one.  The  Dickensian  keen  on  topog- 
raphy grumbles  when  he  cannot  find  in  Forster  information 
as  to  the  exact  identity  and  location  of  the  home  of  tliis 
character  or  that ;  another  comj^lains  that  the  author  does 
not  record  the  identity  of  the  prototype  of  this  character 
or  that;  another  is  cross  because  Forster  does  not  record 
that  Mrs.  Dickens  was  "a  large  woman,  with  a  great  deal 
of  colour,  and  rather  coarse."  Forster  did  not  know  that 
he  was  writing  for  the  modern  Dickensian ;  he  did  not  know 
that  all  these  details  would  be  sought  after  some  day ;  but 
even  if  he  could  have  foreseen  all  this,  he  could  not  have 
included  these  minute — and  comparatively  triAdal — details 
in  his  book.  Indeed,  we  must  be  careful  what  we  ask  of  a 
biographer.  Is  he  to  be  expected  to  record  the  full  postal 
address  of  every  house  in  which  his  subject  ever  dined? 
To  ask  that — and  some  Dickensians  do  seem  to  ask  for  it — 
is  to  reveal  a  misconception  of  the  scope  and  purpose  of 
biography.  That  purpose — the  main  purpose,  at  any  rate 
■ — is  to  reveal  character,  and  after  we  have  read  all  that 
Dickens's  friends  have  to  say  about  him,  can  it  be  fairly 
suggested  that  Forster's  book  does  not  fulfil  that  purpose.? 


THE  GREATEST  OF  THEM  ALL     411 

Boswell,  of  course,  uses  a  different  method  of  revealing 
his  subject's  character,  but  it  is  absurd  to  quote  him  against 
Forster  in  particular.  He  might  be  quoted  with  exactly  the 
same  amount  of  force  against  every  other  biographer  in  any 
language  whatsoever.  Remember,  too,  that  Boswell's 
method  would  be  impossible  with  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  biographers  out  of  any  thousand.  Compare  him  with 
Forster  for  a  moment.  He  knew  Johnson  for  twenty  years ; 
Forster  knew  Dickens  for  thirty-four  years.  Boswell  saw 
his  friend  twice  a  year  at  the  most ;  Forster  saw  his  almost 
every  day.  Only  rarely  did  letters  pass  between  BosweU 
and  Johnson;  between  Forster  and  Dickens  not  a  week 
passed  but  there  was  an  exchange  of  letters.  With  these 
facts  in  mind,  how  ridiculous  it  is  to  criticise  Forster  for 
not  being  a  Boswell! 

In  very  truth  Forster  had  a  difficult  task.  He  had  the 
choice  of  two  stools,  as  it  were,  and  he  surely  is  to  be  con- 
gratulated upon  the  fact  that  he  avoided  the  fate  that  is 
proverbially  said  to  befall  the  person  placed  in  such  a  pre- 
dicament. He  choose  one  of  the  stools,  planted  himself 
firmly  upon  it,  and  he  sits  there  immovable  for  all  time. 

And  now  let  us  consider  the  charge  that  Forster  was 
unjust  or  unfair  to  others  of  Dickens's  friends.  He  did,  I 
think,  in  just  one  or  two  cases,  allow  his  personal  feelings 
to  govern  him.  It  is  difficult  to  doubt  that  he  was  jealous 
of  one  or  two  of  the  friends  of  later  years.  He  was  always 
jealous  of  any  one  who  came  very  close  to  his  friend.  Now, 
the  friend  of  later  years  for  whom  Dickens  had  most  regard 
was  Wilkie  Collins.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  closeness 
of  his  friendship  with  the  younger  novelist.  It  puzzles  me, 
it  has  puzzled  many  others,  but  it  was  a  fact.  Just  note 
how  Collins  was  associated  with  Dickens  in  everything  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  the  latter's  literary  career.  Need  we 
be  surprised  if  Forster  feared  sometimes  that  he  was  in 
danger  of  being  supplanted?  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that  he  did.  In  addition  to — probably  partly  because 
of,  that  fact,  Forster  had  no  great  hking  for  ColHns.  I 
have  already  quoted  James  Payn  on  the  difficulty  one  some- 
times experiences  in  feeling  a  friendship  towards  one's 
friend's  friend.  In  respect  of  Wilkie  Collins,  Mr.  Renton 
makes  exactly  that  point.  He  says  that  Collins  was  not  to 
Forster  what  Forster  was  to  Dickens  (which  hardly  needed 


412  THE  DICKENS   CIRCLE 

saying),  and  he  adds:  "My  friend  whom  I  introduce  to  you 
is,  by  virtue  of  that  introduction,  your  friend  also,  but 
not  as  I  am  your  friend,  or  you  mine."  Of  course  it  is  true ; 
and  though  Forster  was  friendly  enough  with  Collins,  it 
was  only  because  Collins  was  his  friend's  friend.  He  had 
no  particular  regard  for  the  man,  and  because  of  Dickens's 
strange  regard  for  him,  was  also  rather  jealous  of  him. 
And  the  result  was  that  when  he  came  to  write  Dickens's 
life  he  did  not  treat  Collins  fairly.  There  are  nineteen 
references  to  Collins  in  the  book  (according  to  the  best 
index  that  we  possess).  Three  of  those  references  are  to 
the  appearance  of  serial  stories  in  All  the  Year  Round, 
most  of  the  others  are  to  Collins  accompanying  Dickens  on 
journej^s,  and  the  remainder  are  to  theatrical  matters. 
There  is  not  a  reference  of  an  intimate  character,  except 
the  first,  which,  speaking  of  Collins's  appearance  in  Used 
Up  in  1852,  says  that  he  "became,  for  all  of  the  rest  of 
the  life  of  Dickens,  one  of  his  dearest  and  most  valued 
friends" — surely  a  curt  dismissal  of  a  friend  who  influenced 
Dickens's  literary  work  as  no  one  else  ever  did !  Collins  had 
reason  for  feeling  aggrieved.  He  was  entitled  to  better 
treatment. 

Collins's  is  the  most  glaring  case,  but  it  does  not  stand 
alone.  It  is  quite  easy,  in  reading  Forster's  books,  to  tell 
which  of  Dickens's  friends  he  liked  and  which  he  did  not 
like.  We  know  he  liked  Maclise  and  Stanfield  and  Lemon, 
for  instance.  We  know  he  "was  not  so  keen  on"  certain 
others.  But,  after  all,  the  offence  is  not  rank.  Forster  was 
the  friend  of  Dickens.  He  loved  the  novelist  with  a  love 
rarely  found  to  exist  between  men.  With  that  love  there 
went,  hand  in  hand,  a  real  jealousy.  Further,  he  had  no 
particular  regard  for  some  of  his  friend's  friends;  and  he 
was  human.  Recognise  these  facts,  and  recognise — as  I 
think  we  must — the  soundness  of  the  plan  upon  which  he 
worked,  and  there  is  very  little  substantial  ground  for  com- 
plaint. Consider  fairly  all  the  criticisms  of  his  book  that 
have  been  offered,  and  admit  that  in  some  of  them  there 
is  a  grain  of  truth,  but  when  all  is  said  and  done  we  are 
forced  to  agree  that  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens  is  a  noble 
tribute  to,  and  memorial  of,  a  great  and  rare  friendship 
which  will  last  for  all  time. 


INDEX 


a  Beckett,  Gilbert,  dramatises  The 
Chimes,  298;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  298 

"After  Dark,"    336 

Agassiz,  Jean,  231 

Ainger,  Canon,  297,  298,  383 

Ainsworth,  William  Harrison,  44,  49, 
65,  71,  89,  153,  156,  222,  302,  321; 
daughters  of,  visited  by  Dickens, 
15;  godfather  to  Henry  Fielding 
Dickens,  18;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  11-19;  his  influence  on 
Dickens's  work,  15 

Albaro,  133,  308, 

Albion,  the.  See  Nicholas  Nicklehy, 
dinner  to  celebrate  completion  of. 

Alison,  Sir  Archibald,  133 

All  the  Year  Round,  31,  64,  116,  137, 
143,  145,  169,  170,  171,  197,  198, 
218,  223,  260,  298,  305,  320,  336, 
337,  338,  339.  See  also  Editor,  Dick- 
ens as  an. 

Allan,  Sir  WiUiam,  R.A.,  133 

Allchin,  Arthur,  43,  44,  45 

America,  Dickens's  first  visit  to,  3,  33, 
162,  225,  235;  Dickens's  second  visit 
to,  217,  225,  230,  238-241,  384; 
Macready's  visit  to,  34.  See  Copy- 
right, International. 

American  friends,  Dickens's,  225-241. 

American  Notes,  113,  225;  Captain 
Marryat's  appreciation  of,  162; 
Lord  Jeffrey's  opinion  of,  122;  Lord 
Macaulay's  opinion  of,  315;  Marcus 
Stone's  illustrations  for  Library 
Edition  of,  178 

Andersen,  Hans  Christian,  194;  dedi- 
cates a  book  to  Dickens,  387;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  385-389 

"Animal   Magnetism,"  254,  274 

Apprentices,  Two  Idle,  The  Lazy  Touv 
of,  326 

."Armadale,"  337 


Ashley,  Lord.  See  Shaftesbury,  Earl  of. 
Athenaeum  Club,  the,  95 
"Athenaeum,  The,"  333 

Ballantine,  Serjeant,  49,  181 

Baltimore,  228 

Bancroft,  George,  237 

BardeU  v.  Pickwick,  190 

Barham,  Rev.  R.  H.,  136,  153 

Barnaby  Rudge,  142,  325;  F.  W.  Top- 
ham's  drawings  from,  294;  George 
Cattermole's  illustrations  for,  77. 
See  Varden,  Dolly. 

Barrow,  Mr.,  165 

Bath,  203 ;  Dickens's  visits  to  Landor 
at,  55,  50,  58,  68,  368;  memorial 
tablets  at,  to  Dickens  and  Landor,  54 

Battle  of  Life,  The,  Albert  Smith's 
dramatisation  of,  301,  383;  dedi- 
cated to  English  friends  in  Switzer- 
land, 257;  Leech's  illustrations  for, 
272;  Maclise's  illustrations  for,  72; 
Stanfield's  illustrations  for,  112 

Beaconsfield,  Earl  of.  See  Disraeli, 
Benjamin. 

Beard,  Frank,  339 

Beard,  Thomas,  9 

Beaufort,  Duke  of,  61 

Beaver,  Hugh,  15,  16 

Belgians,  King  of  the,  247 

Bell,  Robert,  298 

Belvedere,  70 

Bentley,  Richard,  142,  223 

"Bentley's  Miscellany,"  16,  18,  21, 
223,  296,  342 

Bcrger,  Francesco,  298,  299 

Bethnal  Green.  See  Nova  Scotia  Gar- 
dens. 

Birmingham,  120 

Black,  Adam,  133 

Black,  John,  4,  9 

Blanchard,  Laman,  3,  31,  165;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  213-215 


413 


414 


INDEX 


Bleak  House,  pregentatJofi  copy  of, 
to  Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke,  289.  See 
Boythorn,  Lawrence;  also  Chesney 
Wold;  aiso  Jo,  Poor;  aZso  Skimpole, 
Harold. 

Blessington,  Countess  of,  her  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  183-188 

"Blot  on  the  'Scutclieon,"  39 

Blunderstone,  276,  281 

Bonchurch,  172,  275,  281,  284,  304 

Boston,  231,  233,  230,  269 

Boulogne,  102,  276,  324,  339 

Boyle,  Mary,  219,  252,  253  note;  her 
friendship  with  Dickens,  262-266 

Boythorn,  Lawrence,  W.  S.  Landor 
the  original  of,  56,  59 

Boz  Club,  the,  174,  354 

Bradbui-y  and  Evans,  223 

Bray,  Madeline,  Frank  Stone's  picture 
of,  174 

Bray,  Richard,  6 

Brighton,  275,  303 

Bristol,  203,  231 

"Britannia,"  the  steamship,  Stan- 
field's  picture  of,  113 

Broadstairs,  167, 172, 284, 316, 339, 387 

Brookfield,  Rev.William  and  Mrs.,  259 

Brooks,  Shirley,  296 

"Brother,  The  Elder,"  35,  277 

Brough,  Lionel,  297 

Brough,  Robert,  297 

Brougham,  Lord,  181 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  396,  398 

Browne,  Dr.  Edgar,  44  note 

Browne,  Hablot  Knight,  15,  177,  396; 
his  friendship  with  Dickens,  42-47 

Browning,  Robert,  12,  27,  394;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  39-41 

Brunei,  Isambard,  322 

Brussels,  101 

Bryant,  WilUam  Cullen,  237 

Buffalo,  223 

Buller,  Charles,  138 

Burdett-Coutts,  Baroness,  343,  389; 
her  friendship  with  Dickens,  192- 
194;  Martin  Chuzzlewit  dedicated  to, 
193 

Burdett,  Sir  Francis,  192 

Buss,  R.  W.,  42 

Cairo,  226 

Campbell,  Lord,  178,  181 

Cariisle,  Lord,  316 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  3,  145,  185,  308,  395; 

his  friendshipwith  Dickens,  205-209; 

his  influence  on  Dickens's  work,  206 


Carol,  A  Christmas,  34,  50, 99;  Leech's 
illustrations  for,  271,  272;  Lord 
Jeffrey's  eulogy  of,  123;  Presenta- 
tion Copy  of,  to  Thackeray,  89; 
Presentation  Copy  of,  to  Laman 
Blanchard,  214;  Samuel  Rogers  falls 
asleep  over,  148;  Thackeray's 
eulogy  of,  84 

Carrara,  133 

Carrick  Fell,  337 

Cattermole,  George,  3,  70,  153,  165; 
his  friendship  with  Dickens,  75—79; 
his  illustrations  for  Master  Hum- 
phrey's Clock,  76 

Cattermole,  Mrs.,  76 

Channing,  William  Heru-y,  237 

Chapman  and  Hall,  14,  20.  67. 221, 222 

Chapman,  Edward,  222 

Chapman,  Frederic,  222 

Chapman,  Thomas,  320 

Chatham,  68 

Cheeryble  Brothers,  the.  See  Grant, 
the  Brothers. 

Cheltenham,  37 

"Cherry  and  Fair  Star,"  7 

Chesney  Wold,  254 

Chesterton,  Mr.,  139 

Childs,  George  William,  237 

Chimes,  The,  Carlyle's  influence  on, 
206;  Dickens  reads  it  to  Macready, 
35;  Dickens's  reading  of  it  at 
Forster'a  house,  72,  100,  135,  206, 
213,  249,' 269;  dramatised  by  Mark 
Lemon  and  Gilbert  h  Beckett,  298; 
Jeffrey's  eulogy  of  J  123;  Leech's 
illustrations  for,  272 ;  Maclise's  illus- 
trations for,  71 ;  Stanfield's  illustra- 
tions for,  112.    (See  Cute,  Alderman. 

"Chivalry,  The  Spirit  of,"  72 

Choriey,  Henry  Fothergill,  141,  149, 
184,  210;  his  friendship  with  Dick- 
ens, 331-333 

Clarke,  Mrs.  Cowden,  283;  her  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  287-290 

Clay,  Henry,  237 

Cobham,  68 

Cockburn,  Lord,  119,  181 

Colden,  David,  237 

Collier,  John  Payne,  167 

Collins,  Charles  Allston,  10,  328,  339, ' 
356  1 

Collins,  Mrs.  C.  A.  See  Dickens,  Kate 
Macready.  i 

ColHns,  William  Wilkie,  92,  102,  113, 
280,285,303,320,372,409,411,412; 
hia  friendship  with  Dickens,  334-340  r 


INDEX 


415 


his  influence    on    Dickens's    work, 
334 
Colquhoun,  J.  C,  133 
Columbia  Square  Buildings,  Bethnal 

Green,  193 
Copyright,  International,  162, 181,  203 
Copyright,  Talfourd's  work  for,  48 
"Cornhill  Magazine,  The,"  81,  96 
Cornwall,  Barry.    See  Proctor,  B.  W. 
Cornwall,   trip   to,    by   Dickens   and 
Wilkie   Collins,    338;     trip    to,    by 
Dickens,     Stanfield,     Forster     and 
Maclise,  68,  89,  110,  398 
Costello,  Dudley,  113,  294 
Coutts,    Miss.      (See    Burdett-Coutts, 

Baroness. 
Crawford,  Sir  George,  317 
Crewe,  Marquis  of,  ix,  242,  247 
Cricket  on  the  Hearth,  The,  28;    dedi- 
cated to  Lord  Jeffrey,  121;   drama- 
tised  by  Albert  Smith,   301,   383; 
Landseer's     illustration     for,    108; 
Maclise's  illustrations  for,  72;  Stan- 
fold's  illustrations  for,  112 
C.ossley,  James,  14,  17,  18 
Cruikshank,    George,    11,    153,    325; 
his  claim  to  the  origination  of  Oliver 
Twist,  21-25;    his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  20-26 ;  his  illustrations  for 
Life  ofGrimaldi,  25 ;  his  illustrations 
for  Mudfog  Papers,  25 ;   his  illustra- 
tions for  Oliver  Twist,  21;   his  illus- 
trations for  Public  Life  of  Mr.  Tul- 
rumble,    25;     his    illustrations    for 
Sketches  by  Boz,  20;   his  portrait  of 
Dickens,  21 
Cumberland,  337 
Cunningham,  Peter,  167,  294,  295 
Cute,  Alderman,  the  original  of,  182 

!' Daily  News,  The."102, 103, 187,  248, 
I     342, 374 

;•  Daily   Telegraph,    The,"   361,    304, 
I      367 

Dana,  Pachard  Henry,  239 

Danson,  Henry,  6,    7 

Darnley,  Earl  of,  113 

Dasent,  A.  I.,  313 

'  David  Copperfield,  56;  dedicated  to  tho 
Hon.  R.  and  Mrs.  Watson,  254; 
dinner  to  celebrate  publication  of 
first  number  of,  89,  219,  308,  375; 
Carlyle's  appreciation  of,  207;  Jef- 
frey's opinion  of ,  125;  Thackeray's 
praise  of,  84.  Sec  Blunderstone ;  also 
Tradles,  Tommy;  also  Yarmouth. 


"Dead  Secret,  The,"  336 

"Deaf  as  a  Post,"  269 

de  Cerjat,  M.,  258 

Delane,  John  T.,  313 

Demnan,  Lord,  180,  181 

Denmark,  Queen  Dowager  of,  389 

Devonshire,  Duke  of,  291-292 

Devonshire  House,  theatrical  per- 
formance at,  215,  279,  291,  296,  335 

Devonshire,  trip  to,  by  Dickens  and 
Wilkie  Collins,  338 

Dickens,  Alfred  Tennyson,  188 

Dickens,  Augustus,  320 

Dickens,  Charles,  as  an  editor,  341, 
359,  360,  377,  379;  as  a  newspaper 
reporter,  8;  candidate  for  Lord 
Rectorship  of  Glasgow  University, 
217;  drawing  of  his  children  by 
Maclise,  71 ;  his  capacity  for  friend- 
ship, vii,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  76,  332;  his  ad- 
vocacy of  Hberal  education,  168;  his 
anti-Catholic  bias,  379;  his  early 
enthusiasm  for  the  Stage,  7;  his 
later  enthusiasm  for  the  Stage,  268 ; 
and  see  under  Theatricals;  his 
estrangement  from  his  wife,  282, 
313;  his  loyalty  to  the  profession  of 
Literature,  201,  211,245;  his  per- 
Bonahty,  vii,  176,  182,  263,  288,  316, 
320;  his  work  for  Social  Reform, 
193,  195,  196,  197,  199,  318;  said  to 
have  acted  in  The  Strange  Gentleman, 
302;   writes  stories  in  boyhood,  7 

Dickens,  Charles,  portrait  of,  by  George 
Cruikshank,  21;  by  Augustus  Egg, 
R.A.,  284;  by  W.  P.  Frith,  R.A., 
326;  by  John  Leech,  276;  by  C.  R. 
Leslie,  R.A.,  324;  by  Daniel  Machse, 
R.A.,  67, 141;  byJ.E.  MUIais,R.A., 
328;  by  E.  M.  Ward,  R.  A.,  324 

Dickens,  Charles  CuUingford  Boz,  192, 
224,  360 

Dickens,  Dora,  286 

Dickens,  Edward  Bulwer  LyttonJ 
333 

Dickens,  Francis  Jeffrey,  121 

Dickens,  Henry  Fielding,  K.C.,  18, 
279  note 

Dickens,  Kate  Macready,  ix,  10,  32, 
74,  89,  215,  277,  280,  328,  356 
Marcus  Stone's  portrait  of,  177 

Dickens,  Mary,  114,275,  278, 280, 333; 
406 

Dickens,  Mrs.  Charles,  55,  70,  71; 
Maclise's  portrait  of,  70 

Dickens,   Sydney  Smith  Haldimand. 


416 


INDEX 


138,258;  Frank  Stone's  portrait  of , 
172 

Dickens,  WalterSavageLandor,5S,  193 

Dickens  Fellowship,  the,  viii,  354 

Dickensian,  The,  viii,  51  note,  132  7iote, 
271  note,  276,  372  note 

Dilke,  Wentworth,  10 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  185,  198 

"Doctor's  Mixture,"  354 

Dodger,  the  Artful,  50 

Dolby,  George,  37,  38,  231,  240;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  384 

Dolby,  Miss,  301 

Dombey  and  Son,  28,  101,  102;  Chris- 
tening Dinner,  15,  278;  dedicated  to 
Marchioness  of  Normanby,  114; 
Rev.  William  Brookfield's  opinion 
of,  259;  Lord  Denman's  apprecia- 
tion of,  180;  Lord  Jeffrey's  opinion 
of,  118,  124,  125;  Charles  Kent's  re- 
view of,  355;  Lord  Macaulay's  opin- 
ion of,  314;  Daniel  Maclise's  opinion 
of,  72.    See  Feenix,  Cousin. 

Dombey,  Mr.,  the  falsely  reputed 
original  of,  320 

D'Orsay,  Count,  his  friendship  with. 
Dickens,  183-138 

Dotheboys  Hall,  44 

"Down  at  the  Red  Grange,"  351 

Dublin,  352 

Dufferin,  Lady,  189 

Dumas,  Alexander,  323 

Eastlake,  Sir  Charles,  R.A.,  328 
Edge  worth,  Maria,  180 
Edinburgh,  119,  120,  130,  132,  372 
"Edinburgh  Review,  The,"  314 
Editor,  Dickens  as  an,  341,  359,  360, 

377,  379 
Edwin  Drood,  The  Mystery  of,  241,  328, 
334 ;  Dickens  offers  to  reveal  plot  of, 
to  Queen  Victoria,  319;    Sir  Luke 
Fildes's  illustrations  for,  329 
Egg,  Augustus,  R.  A.,  1 14, 280, 335, 339 ; 
designs  the  dresses  for  "  Not  so  Bad 
as  we  Seem,"  284;    his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  283-286. 
Elliot,  Mrs.,  152 
EUiotson,  Dr.  John,  70,  153,  182;   Ixia 

friendship  with  Dickens,  134 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  237 
"Enchanted  Doll,  The,"  273 
England,  A  Child's  History  of,  Marcus 
Stone's    illustrations    for    Library 
Edition  of,  178;   Presentation  Copy 
of,  to  Marcus  Stone,  175 


Evans,  Mr.    See  Bradbury  and  Evans. 
"Every  Man  in  His  Humour,"  35,  71, 

78,  104,  113,  156,  173,  189,215,269, 
273,  278,  284,  288,  294,  298 

"Examiner,  The,"  24,  28,   146,   152, 

272,  358,  394 
Exeter,  203 

Factory  Question,  the,  Dickensand,  196 

Fagin,  Bob,  6 

Fairy  Tales,  Dickens's  defence  of,  24 

Fang,  Mr.,  the  original  of,  182 

"Fatal  Zero,"  354 

Faucit,  Helen,  301 

Fechter,  Charles  Albert,  2,  177,  302; 
his  friendship  with  Dickens,  390-392 

Feenix,  Cousin,  the  reputed  original  of, 
311 

Felton,  Prof.  C.  C,  3,  68.  72,  110,  227, 
230;  his  friendship  with  Dickens, 
233-235 

Fields,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  T.,  their 
friendship  with  Dickens,  238-241 

Fiesole,  64 

Fildes,  Sir  Luke,  R.A.,  his  drawing  of 
Dickens's  grave,  330;  his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  329 ;  his  illustrations 
for  Edwin  Drood,  328,  329;  his 
painting  of  "  The  Empty  Chair,"330 

Fitzgerald,  Edward,  196 

Fitzgerald,  Percy,  \-ii,  12,  81, 107, 141, 
189, 190, 209, 223, 262, 318, 335, 341, 
358,  364,  366,  372,  376,  394,  396, 
399;  his  friendship  with  Dickens, 
350-354 

Fitzgerald,  S.  J.  Adair,  270 

Fitzpatrick,  W.  J.,  136 

Flanders,  101 

Fletcher,  Angus,  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  133 

Florence,  63 

Flower,  Miss  Eliza,  249 

Follett,  Sir  W.,  190,  191 

Fonblanque,  Albany,  135 

Ford,  Mr.,  145 

Ford,  Mrs.,  317 

Forster,  John,  3,  11, 12,  13,  15, 16, 18, 
27,  29,  35,  39,  44,  53,  54,  55,  56,  58, 
63,  65,  66,  67,  68,  70,  71,  73,  74,  75, 

79,  98,  100,  102,  107,  110,111,  115, 
135,  152,  156,  163,  185,  187,  208, 
209,  211,  212,  220,  249,  276,  281, 
282,  283,  302,  313,  323,  335,  341, 
343, 351 , 358, 359, 390, 391 ;  dedicates 
his  "Life  of  Goldsmith"  to  Dick- 
ens, 405;    first  learns  of  Dickens'a 


INDEX 


417 


existence,  135;  godfather  to  Mary 
Dickens,  406;  his  capacity  for 
friendship,  394;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  393-^12;  his  "Life  of 
Charles  Dickens,"  vii,  405-412; 
his  "Life  of  Walter  Savage  Landor" 
re\'iewed  by  Dickens,  64,  368,  403; 
his  personality,  393  399 

"Fortunio,"  279,  297,  335 

Fox,  W.  J.,  his  friendship  with  Dick- 
ens, 248-249 

Fraser,  W.  A.,  271 

"Friends  in  Council,"  218 

Frith,W.  P.,R.  A.,  107,  286;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  325;  his  illustra- 
tion for  Library  Edition  of  Little 
Dorrit,  326;  liis  portrait  of  Dickens, 
326 

"  Frozen  Deep.The,"  106, 1 15, 285, 292, 
297,  299,  306,  336,  344,  3S9;  Fran- 
cesco Berger's  music  for,  299;  MS. 
of,  sold  by  auction,  336;  Clarkson 
Stanfield's  drop  scene  for,  115 

"Gad's  Hill  Gazette,  The,"  176,  333, 
356,  391 

Gad's  Hill  House,  Marcus  Stone's  pic- 
ture of,  177;  the  purchase  of, 369, 370 

Garrick  Club,  the,  92,  94,  349 

Gaskell,  Mrs.,  her  friendship  with 
Dickens,  375 

Genoa,  100,  192 

"Gentleman  Cadet,"  371 

Gentleman,  The  Strange,  362;  Dickens 
offers  it  to  Macready,  29;  J.  P. 
Harley  appears  in,  302 

Gibson,  Thomas  Milner,  319 

GiUies,  Lord,  133 

Gladstone,  Wilham  Ewart,  199 

Glasgow,  120 

Glasgow  Athen£Eum,  120 

Glasgow  University,  Dickens  a  candi- 
date for  the  Lord  Rectorship  of,  219 

"Glencoe,"  53 

"Gordian  Knot,  The,"  296 

Gordon,  Joseph,  133 

Gordon,  Mrs.,  144 

Gore  House,  183-188,  273 

Graham,  Lady,  189 

Grant,  the  Brothers,  Dickens's  meet- 
ing with,  15,  44 

Great  Expectations,  dedicated  to  Chaun- 
cey  Hare  Townshend,  311;  Car- 
lyle's  appreciation  of,  208;  Lytton's 
influence  on,  218;  MS.  of,  pre- 
sented to  Chauncey  Hare  Town- 


shend, 311;  Marcus  Stone's  illustra- 
tions for  Library  Edition  of,  178 

Green,  Poll,  6 

Greenwich,  dinner  at,  tn  .John  Black, 
9,  138;  dinner  at,  to  welcome 
Dickens  home  from  America,  18,  25, 
50, 68, 110, 135, 152, 162, 169, 242 

Grego,  Joseph,  272 

Grimaldi,  Life  of,  Cruikshank's  illus- 
trations for,  25 

Grove,  Sir  George,  320 

"Guy  Fawkes,"  297,  383 

Haldimand,  William,  257 

Hall,  Mrs.  S.  C,  183,  322 

Hall,  Samuel  Carter,  149,  156,  321 

Hall,  William,  221 

Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,  237 

Hallam,  Henry,  258 

Halliday,  Andrew,  367 

Hampstead,  HI.  .And  see  Jack  Straw's 
Castle. 

Handel  Festival,  the  first,  389 

"Hard  Cash,"  320 

Hard  Times,  198;  Carlyle's  influence 
on, 206 

Harley,  John  P.,  155,  302 

Harness,  Rev.  William,  his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  249 

"Harper's  Magazine,"  95 

Harwick,  John,  322 

Haunted  House,  The,  338 

Haunted  Man,  The,  Christening  Din- 
ner, 10, 278, 297;  dramatised  by  Mark 
Lemon,  278;  John  Leech's  illustra- 
tions for,  273;  Clarkson  Stanfield's 
illustrations  for,  112;  Frank  Stone's 
illustrations  for,  173;  Sir  John 
Tenniel's  illustrations  for,  290 

Headlands,  Mr.,  384 

"Heart,  A  Dead,"  46 

Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  307,  320;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  318 

Herculanajum,  306 

Hewlett,  Henry  G.,  332 

Higgins,  Matthew,  317 

Hill,  Mr.  (Editor  of  "The  DaUy 
News"),  40 

Hodder,  Edwin,  196 

Hogarth,  Georgiana,  37,  69,  71,  183, 
285,  405 

HolHngshead,  John,  341 

Holly  Tree  Inn,  The,  338 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  231,  236,  239 

Hood,  Thomas,  211,  213;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  151-154 


418 


INDEX 


Hood,  Thomas,  Threatening  LeUer  to,  154 

"Hood's  Magazine  and  Comic  Miscel- 
lany," 154 

Hook  and  Eye  Club,  the,  21 

Home,  Richard  Hengist,  374 

Houghton,  Lady,  246 

Houghton,  Lord.  See  Milnes,  Richard 
Monckton. 

House  to  Let,  A,  338 

Household  Words,  24,  38,  49,  52,  143, 
160, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 185, 191, 
197, 198,  223, 282, 298,  305,  313,  327, 
336,  337,  338.  See  also  Editor, 
Dickens  as  an. 

Household  Words  Almanac,  The,  360]  • 

Hughes,  Master  Hastings,  136 

Hugo,  Victor,  323 

HuUah,  John,  303 

Hunt,  Hohnan,  328 

Hunt,  Leigh,  vii,  3,  213,  287,  302,  315; 
his  friendship  with  Dickens,  155- 
160;  theatrical  performances  in  aid 
of,51,7S,  104, 156,201,269,273,283 

"Idylls  of  the  King,  The,"  219 
Ingoldsby,     Thomaa.     See    Barham, 

R.  H. 
"Ion,"  48 

Irving,  Washington,  3,  324;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  225-229 
Is  She  His  Wife?  302 
Isle  of  Wight.     See  Bonchurch;  also 

White,  Rev.  James. 
Italian  Refugees,  Dickens's  appeal  for, 

322 
Italy,  Pictures  from,  Count  D'Orsay 

influences  the  publication  of,  188; 

Marcus    Stone's    illustrations    for 

Library  Edition  of,  178 

Jack  Straw's  Castle,  111,  155 

Jeaffreson,  James  Cordy,  81,  82,  85 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  vii,  3;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  118-129 

Jerdan,  William,  147,  152,  153,  387; 
his  friendship  with  Dickens,  140-143 

Jerrold,  Blanchard,  97,  103,  356 

Jerrold,  Douglas,  3,  110,  167,  271,  277, 
290,  297,  299,  381,  396;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  97-106 

"Jerrold's,  Douglas,  Shilling  Maga- 
zine," 72 

Jo,  Poor,  Marcus  Stone's  drawing  of, 
175 

Jodrell,  Sir  E.  R.,  67 

Jones,  Southwood,  138 


"Journey  Due  North;  A,*'  364 
Jowett,  Prof.,  211 

Kceloy,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  301 

Kemble,  Charles,  268,  301 

Kensal  Lodge,  14 

Kensal  Manor  House,  14 

Kent,  Charles,  vii,  19,  341;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  355-357 

"Key  of  the  Street,  The,"  363 

King  Edward  VII.  See  Wales,  Prince 
of. 

Kitton,  F.  G.,  254,  369,  370 

Knebworth,  215,  216,  274,  278,  284, 
319,  346,  353 

Knight,  Charles,  3;  252,  341;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  165-168 

Knowles,  Sheridan  James,  theatrical 
performances  in  aid  of,  105, 120, 213, 
299 

Laing,  Mr.,  182 

Lamartine,  Alphonse,  323 

Lamplighter's  Story,  The,  Cruikshank's 
illustration  for,  25;  offered  to  Mac- 
ready,  29 

Landor,  Walter  Savage,  vii,  3,  65,  185; 
321,  368;  his  friendship  with  Dick- 
ens, 54-64 

Landseer,  Charles,  3,  108,  153 

Landseer,  Sir  Edwin,  R.  A.,71, 107, 163 

Landseer,  Thomas,  3,  108,  153 

Lang,  Andrew,  329 

Lankestcr,  Dr.,  281 

Lanman,  Charles,  238 

Laurie,  Sir  Peter,  182 

Lausanne,  IS,  51,  134,  252,  258,  307 

Layard,  George  Somes,  297,  317 

Layard,  Sir  Austen,  198 

Leech,  John,  281,  295;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  271-276;  his  por- 
trait of  Dickens,  276 

Lehmann,  Frederick,  266,  331,  345 

Lehmann,  R.  C,  345,  369 

Leigh,  Percival,  298 

Lemon,  Mark,  114,  116,  215,  274,  275, 
276,  296,  313,  363;  dramatises  The 
Chimes,  298 ;  dramatises  The  Haunted 
Man,  278;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  277-282 

Lennox,  Lord  William,  82 

Leslie,  Charles  Robert,  R.A.,  324 

L'Estrange,  Rev.  A.  G.,  250,  251 

Lever,  Charles,  136,  137 

Lewes,  George  Henry,  293,  294,  409 

Lichfield,  68 


INDEX 


419 


"Lighthouse,  The,"  113, 178, 181,  280, 
285,  299,  236;  Francesco  Berger's 
music  for,  299 ;  Clarkson  Stanfield's 
scene  for,  113 

Linton,  Mrs.  Lynn,  56,  145,  341,  403; 
her  friendship  with  Dickens,  368-370 

Linton,  W.  J.,  272 

Literary  Fund,  the,  10,  215 

"Literary  Gazette,  The,"  143 

Literature  and  Art,  the  Guild  of,  213- 
217,  324,  343,  353.  See  also  under 
Theatrical  performances. 

Little  Dorrit,  Hans  Christian  Ander- 
sen's appreciation  of,  388;  dedi- 
cated to  Clarkson  Stanfield,  113; 
Duke  of  Devonshire's  appreciation 
of,  291;  W.  D.  Frith's  iUustration 
forLibrary  Edition  of,  326;  Marcus 
Stone's  frontispiece  to  First  Cheap 
Edition  of,  178 

Liverpool,  banquet  at,  to  Dickens, 
217,  245 

"Lizzie  Leigh,"  375 

Llanthony,  61 

Locker-Lampson,  Frederick,  237,  316 

Lockhart,  John  Gibson,  144,  368 

Logan  Stone,  the,  Clarkson  Stanfield'a 
drawing  of,  110 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  3;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  230-232 

Longman,  Thomas,  224 

Longman,  William,  137 

•'Love,  Law,  and  Physick,"  120,  284, 
288,  294 

Lovelace,  Lord  and  Lady,  317 

Lover,  Samuel,  92 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  231,  236 

Lowestoft,  276 

Lyttleton,  Hon.  Spencer,  276 

Lytton,  Lord,  82,  164,  173,  198,  284, 
311,  397;  his  friendship  with  Dick- 
ens, 210-218 

Lytton,  Robert,  211,  218 

Macaulay,  Lord,  314 

Mackay,  Charles,  8 

Mackenzie,  Shelton,  21 

Maclise,  Daniel,  R.  A.,vii,  3, 18, 19,55, 
77,  98,  101,  102,  107,  111,  113,  163, 
165, 185, 220.272;  his  "Apotheosis  of 
the  Raven,"  71;  his  drawing  of  1 
Devonshire  Terrace,  71 ;  his  drawing 
of  Dickens'schildren,71 ;  his  drawing 
of  Dickens,  Mrs.  Dickens,  and  Misa 
Hogarth,  71;  his  drawing  of  Dickena 
as  Captain  Bobadil,  and  Forster  as 


Kiteley,  71;  his  drawing  of  Dick- 
ens's reading  of  Thefihimes,  71;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  65-74;  his 
illustrations  to  The  Battle  of  Life,  72; 
his  illustrations  to  The  Chimes,  72; 
his  illustrations  to  The  Cricket  on  the 
Hearth,  72;  his  illustration  for  The 
Old  Curiosity  Shop,  72;  his  portrait 
of  Dickens,  67,  141 ;  his  portrait  of 
Mrs.  Dickens,  70 

Macready,  Henry,  Dickens  as  god- 
father to,  32 

Macready,  Kate,  38 

Macready,  William  Charles,  2, 3, 4,  41, 
44,  48,  49,  53,  65,  67,  70,  98,  104, 
108,  116,  142,  165,  184,  185,  211, 
217,  273,  277,  301,  302,  308,  314. 
396,  398,  400,  401;  his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  27-38 

Macrone,  11,  17,  25,  222,  223 

Manchester,  51,  170,  196;  Dickens 
visits,  with  Ainsworth,  15,  16; 
Dickens  visits,  with  H.  K.  Browne,  44 

Manson,  James  A.,  107 

Marryat,  Captain,  153,  185;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  161-164 

Martin  Chuzzlewit,  dedicated  to  Miss 
Coutts,  193;  dramatisation  of,  by 
Edward  Stirling,  383;  A.  Fon- 
blanque'sappreciationof ,  135 ;  Frank 
Stone's  frontispiece  for  First  Cheap 
Edition  of,  174.    See  Pecksniff,  Mr. 

Martin,  Sir  Theodore,  95,  396 

Martineau,  Harriet,  341;  her  associa- 
tion with  Dickens,  377 

"Mary  Barton,"  375 

Marzials,  Sir  Frank,  383 

Master  Humphrey's  Clock,  44,  59,  68, 
119,  302;  Rev.  WiUiam  Brook- 
field's  opinion  of,  259;  George 
Cattermole's  illustrations  for,  76; 
Thomas  Hood's  appreciation  of, 
151 

Matz,  B.  W.,  viii 

Mazzini,  Guiseppe,  322 

McCarthy,  Justin,  293,  321 

Melbourne,  Lord,  189 

"  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  The,"  129, 
278,  287 

Mesmerism,  Dickens's  interest  in,  134; 
Dickens  saves  John  Leech's  life  by 
means  of,  275 

Message  from  the  Sea,  A,  338 

Millais,  John  Everett,  R.A.,  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  326;  his  portrait 
of  Dickens  after  death,   328;    his 


420 


INDEX 


picture  from  Th,&  Old  Curiosity  Shop, 

328  ,  , 
"Miller,  The,  and  His  Men,"  7,  372 
Miller,  William,  ix 
Milnes,  Richard  Monckton,  153;    his 

friendship  with  Dickens,  242-247 
Miscellaneous  Papers,  73,  146  note,  253 

note,  279,  303 
Molesworth,  Lady,  317 
Montreal,  268 
"Moonstone,  The,"  337 
Moore,  Thomas,  138 
Morley,  Henry,  341,  395;   his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  358-360 
"Morning  Chronicle,  The,"  9 
Morris,  Mowbray,  322 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  237 
"Mr.  Nightingale's  Diary,"  173,  215, 

279,  284,  294,  335 
Mudfog  Papers,   The,  George  Cruik- 

shank's  illustrations  for,  25 
Mulgrave,  Lord,  his  friendship  with 

Dickens,  268-270 
Murray,  Lord,  133 


Napier,  Macvey,  133 

Naples,  306 

Nell,  Little,  "birthplace"  of,  at  Bath, 
55;  Lord  Jeffrey's  affection  for,  119, 
122  ;W.  S.  Landor's  affection  for,  55; 
W.  C.  Macready's  affection  for,  33 

"Never  Forgotten,"  353 

Neio  Lamps  for  Old  Ones,  327 

"New  Spirit  of  the  Age,  The,"  374 

New  York,  226,  233 

Nice,  186 

Nicholas  Nickleby,  85;  dedicated  to 
W.  C.  Macready,  32;  dinner  to  cele- 
brate completion  of,  32,  44,  59,  67, 
110, 141,302;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Keeley 
appear  in  pirated  version  of,  301; 
Mr.  Yates'  performance  in,  348; 
Presentation  Copy  of,  to  J.  P.  Har- 
ley,  302;  Sydney  Smith's  apprecia- 
tion of,  138.  See  Bray,  Madeline; 
also  Grant  Brothers,  the;  also  Price, 
'Tilda;  also  Smike. 

Nickleby,  Kate,  Frank  Stone's  picture 
of,  174 

"Night,  A  Fearful,"  348 

"No  Name,"  337 

No  Thoroughfare,  Dickens  and  Wilkie 
Collins  collaborate  in  dramatisation 
of,  335,  338;  C.  A.  Fechter  appears 
in,  302,  391 


Normanby,  Marchioness  of,  Donibey 

and  Son  dedicated  to,  134 

Normanby,  Marquis  of,  134 

"North  and  South,"  376  note 

North,  Christopher.    See  Wilson,  John. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  237 

Norton,  Hon.  Mrs.,  her  friendship  with 
Dickens,  189-191 

Norwich,  276,  282 

"Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem,"  105,  113, 
168, 173,  215, 284,  294, 296, 298;  Au- 
gustus Egg  designs  the  dresses  for, 
284 

Nova  Scotia  Gardens,  Bethnal  Green, 
193 

Nugent,  Lord,  317 

"Nymph  of  the  Waterfall,  The," 
Daniel  MacUse's  painting,  69,  70 

Old  Cheeseman,  Lord  Tennyson's 
opinion  of,  220 

Old  Curiosity  Shop,  The,  dedicated  to 
Samuel  Rogers,  147;  George  Cat- 
termole'sillustrationsfor,  77;  Daniel 
MacUse's  drawing  for,  72;  J.  E. 
Millais's  picture  from,  328;  Thomas 
Hood's  appreciation  of,  151;  F.  W. 
Topham's  drawings  from,  294.  See 
Nell,  Little. 

Oliffe,  Sir  Joseph,  308 

Oliver  Twist,  142, 145, 192,  212;  George 
Cruikshank's  claim  to  have  origi- 
nated, 21-25;  George  Cruikshank's 
illustrations  for,  21;  Dickens  ofi'ers 
to  dramatise,  for  Macready,  30; 
T.  N.  Talfourd's  sonnet  on,  51; 
Mr.  Yates's  performance  in,  347. 
.See  Dodger,  the  Artful ;  also  Fang,Mr. 

"Once  a  Week,"  47,  224,  369 

Orford,  Lord,  318 

Orr,  Mrs.  Sutherland,  41 

Osgood,  James  R.,  231,  239,  241 

Our  Mutual  Friend,  Robert  Bell  ap- 
pears in  dramatic  version  of,  298; 
dedicated  to  Sir  James  Emerson  Ten- 
nent,  306;  H.  F.  Chorley's  review  of, 
333;  Marcus  Stone  as  illustrator  of, 
47,  177,  178.  See  Podsuap,  Mr.; 
also  Venus,  Mr. 

Owen,  Sir  Richard,  309 

Paget,  Lord  Alfred,  313 

"Palm  Leaves,"  244 

Paris,  108, 135, 181, 188,  267,  276,  308, 

317,  323,  324, 339 
Parkinson,  J.  C,  341,  373 


INDEX 


421 


Parliament,   Mewbers  of,  Dickens's 

poor  opinion  of,  48,  198,  245 

"Parliament,  The  Mirror  of,"  165 

Parry,  John,  COl 

"Past  Two  o'clock  in  the  Morning,"269 

"Patrician's  Daughter,  The,"  34,  40 

"Paul  Clifford,"  212  note 

Payn,  James,  83,  156,  371,  399 

Pecksniff,  Mr.,  S.  C.  Hall  probably  the 
original  of,  321 

Pemberton,  T.  Edgar,  270 

Perils  of  Certain  English  Prisoners,  The, 
338 

Perkins,  Jane  Gray,  189 

Perugini,  Mrs.  See  Dickens,  Kate 
Macready. 

Petersham,  67,  75,  302 

Phelps,  Samuel,  301 

PhilHps,  Sir  George,  138 

PhilUps,  Watts,  40 

Phiz.    See  Browne,  Hablot  Knight. 

Pickwick  Pavers,  The,  11,  144;  Bath 
scenes  in,  203;  Lord  Campbell's 
appreciation  of,  178,  181;  Carlyle's 
opinion  of,  207;  dedicated  to  T.  N. 
Talfourd,  48;  Lord  Denman's  ap- 
preciation of,  180;  dinner  to  cele- 
brate completion  of,  14,  15,  30,  44, 
49,  140;  Thomas  Hood's  apprecia- 
tion of,  152;  William  Jerdan's  ap- 
preciation of,  140;  John  Leech,  a 
would-be  illustrator  of,  272;  J.  G. 
Lockhart's  opinion  of,  144;  Phiz's 
illustrations  for,  42 ;  Sydney  Smith's 
failure  to  appreciate,  138;  Tenny- 
son's opinion  of,  220;  Thackeray  a 
would-be  illustrator  of,  89.  See  Bar- 
dell ».  Pickwick ;  aZsoSoane,  Sir  John 

"Pic-nic  Papers,  The,"  25 

"Pictorial  Pickwickiana,"  272 

Pisa,  306 

Planch^,  James  Robinson,  297 

Plays:  "A  Dead  Heart,"  ;  46  "Cherry 
and  Fair  Star,"  7;  "Glencoe,"  53; 
"Ion,"  48;  "The  Miller  and  His 
Men,"  7,  372;  "The  Patrician's 
Daughter,"  34,  40 
[Note. — For  dramatic  versions  of 
Dickens's  books,  see  under  titles 
of  books.] 

Plays  in  which  Dickens  acted:  "A 
Roland  for  an  Oliver,"  229;  "A 
School  for  Scandal"  (scenes  from), 
253;  '  "Animal  Magnetism,"  254, 
274,  280;  "Deaf  as  a  Post,"  269; 
"Every  Man  in  His  Humour,"  35, 


71,  78,  104,  113,  156,  173,  189, 
215,  269,  273,  278,  284,  288,  294, 
295,  298;  "Fortunio,"  279,  297, 
335;  "Guy  Fawkes,"  297,  383; 
"Love,  Law,  and  Physick,"  120, 
284,  288,  294;  "Mr.  Nightingale's 
Diary,"  173,  215,  279,  284, 294,  335; 
Nicholas  Nickleby  (scene  from),  253, 
262;  "Not  so  Bad  as  we  Seem,"  105, 
113, 168, 173,  215, 284, 295, 296,297, 
335;  "Past  Two  O'clock  in  the 
Morning,"  269;  "The  Elder  Broth- 
er," 35,  277;  "The  Frozen  Deep," 
106, 1 15, 280, 285, 292,  297,  299,  300, 
336,  344,  359;  "The  Lighthouse," 
113,  178,  181,  280,  285,  299,  336; 
"The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor," 
120,  278,  287;  "The  Rival  Volun- 
teers," 333;  "Tom  Thumb,"  279; 
"  Used  Up,"  254,  266,  284,  296,  335; 
"William  Tell,"  297,298 

"Plighted  Troth,"  40 

Podsnap,  Mr.,  John  Forster  said  to 
have  been  the  original  of,  396 

Politicians,  Dickens's  atti  tude  towards, 
48,  198,  245 

Pollock,  Lady,  2,  37 

Pollock,  Sir  Frederick,  ISO 

Pollock,  Sir  Jonathan,  180 

Poole,  John,  26,  61,  78,  104,  201-204, 
269,  273,  283 

"Poor  Tom,"  372 

Power,  Marguerite,  188 

Power,  NeUy,  188 

Pre-Raphelite  Art,  Dickens's  opinion 
of,  327 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  237 

Price,  'Tilda,  Frank  Stone's  picture  of, 
174 

Prisonreform,  Dickens's  interest  in,  139 

Proctor,  Adelaide  Anne,  171,  261 

Procter,  B.  W.,  3,  148,  153,  165,  185^ 
260,  394;  his  friendship  with  Dick- 
ens, 169 

Prout,  Father,  153 

Publishers,  Dickens's  relations  with 
his,  221-229,  238-241 

"Punch,"  84,  88,  99,  282,  295,  296, 
316,  362,  367 

"Quarterly  Review,  The,"  144,  145 
Quin,  Dr.,  70,  153,  322 
"Quite  Alone,"  366 

Ragged  Schools,  193,  197 

Reade,  Charles,  320 

"Reader,  Charles  Dickens  as  a,"  357 


422 


INDEX 


Reading,  Dickens  gives  a  reading  at,  7, 
52 ;  Dickens  invited  to  become  can- 
didate for,  52 

Reading  tours,  Dickens's,  381-384 

Renton,  Richard,  169.  212,  283,  382, 
390,  394,  398,  401,  406,  411 

Richmond,  Copperjield  dinner  at,  89, 
291,  308,  375;  dinner  at,  to  Mac- 
ready,  34 

Roberts,  H.  Ellis,  148 

Roberts,  Mr.,  70 

Robertson,  Peter,  132 

"Robinson  Crusoe,"  56 

Rochester,  68,  230 

Rockingham  Castle,  252,  253,  254, 
255,  262,  266.    Sec  Chesney  Wold. 

"Rodney,  Anne,  The  Diary  of,"  336 

Rogers,  Samuel,  3;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  147-150 

"Roland,  A,  for  an  Oliver,"  269 

Rome,  145 

"Rookwood,"  12,  15 

Ross,  384 

Ruskin,  John,  87 

Russell,  Lord  John,  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  198-204 

Russell,  Sir  William  H.,  106 

Rutherford,  Mrs.,  122 

Sala,  G.  A.,  298,  341,  372;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  361-367 

Salisbury  Plain,  276,  281 

Sanitary  improvements,  Dickens's  ad- 
vocacy of,  318 

Scotch  friends  of  Dickens,  132-133 

Scotland,  Dickens's  visits  to,  120,  129, 
132 

Seven  Poor  Travellers,  The,  170,  338 

Seymour,  Robert,  42 

Shaftesbury,  Earl  of,  ^,  198,  217;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  195-197 

Shakespeare  Society,  the,  3,  30,  108, 
165,  169,  172 

Sherborne,  36 

Siddons,  Mrs.  Henry,  122 

"Sister  Rose,"  336 

Sketches  by  Boz,  8,  11,  42,  222;  Cruik- 
shank's  illustrations  for,  20;  Fon- 
blanque's  appreciation  of,  135 

Skimpole,  Harold,  and  Leigh  Hunt, 
156,  315 

Smike,  Lord  Jeffrey's  affection  for,  122 

Smith,  Albert,  dramatises  The  Battle 
of  Life,  301,  833;  dramatises  The 
Cricket  on  the  Hearth,  302,  383;  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  382 


Smith;  Arthur;  106;  his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  381 

Smith,  Sydney,  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  137 

Soane,  Sir,  John,  141 

Social  Reform,  Dickens's  work  for, 
193,  195,  196,  197,  199,  318 

St.  Knighton.  .See  "Ns^nph  of  the 
Waterfall,  The." 

Stage,  the,  Dickens's  enthusiasm  for, 
7;   and  see  Theatricals. 

Stanfield,  Clarkson,  R.  A.,  2, 68, 71,  103, 
107,  153,  163,  165,  217,  280,  282, 
294;  his  friendship  with  Dickens, 
110-117 

Stanley,  Dean,  316 

Staplehurst  railway  accident,  the,  8 

Stirling,  Edward,  383 

Stone,  Frank,  A.R.A.,  3,  165,  283; 
his  friendship  with  Dickens, 172-179; 
his  frontispieceto  MartinChuzzlewit, 
174;  his  illustrations  for  r/ieHauraied 
Man,  173;  his  paintings  of  Madeline 
Bray,  Kate  Nickleby,  and  'Tilda 
Price,  174;  his  portrait  of  Sydney 
Smith  Haldimand  Dickens,  172 

Stone,  Marcus,  R.A.,  ix;  his  drawing 
of  Poor  Jo,  175;  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  1 72-179 ;  his  frontispiece  for 
A  Tale  of  Two  Cities,  178;  his  illus- 
trations for  Child's  History  of 
England,  178;  his  illustrations  for 
American  Notes,  178;  his  illustra- 
tions for  Great  Expectations,  178; 
his  illustrations  for  Little  Dorrit, 
178;  his  illustrations  for  Pictures 
fromltaly,  178;  his  picture  of  Gad's 
Hill  House,  177;  his  portrait  of 
Kate  Dickens,  177;  Presentation 
Copy  of  A  Child's  History  of  Eng- 
land to,  178 

Stonehenge,  281 

Storrow,  Mrs.,  226 

"Strand  Magazine,  The,"  22,  26 

"Strange  Story,  A,"  218 

Stratford-on-Avon,  68 
Stuart,  Lord  Dudley,  317 
Sue,  Eugene,  323 
"Sun,  The,"  355,  356 
Sunday  Under  Three  Heads,  42 
Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles,  305 
Swiss  chalet,  the,  at  Gadshill,  391 
Switzerland.    See  Collins,  WilliamWil- 
kie;  also  de  Cerjat,  M.;  aho  Haldi- 
mand, William;   also  Watson,  Hon. 
R.  and  Mrs. 


INDEX 


423 


Tagart,  Rev.  Edward,  his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  307 

Tale  of  Two  Cities,  A,  44,  289;  Car- 
lyle's  appreciation  of,  208;  Carlyle's 
influence  on,  207;  dedicated  to  Lord 
John  Russell,  203;  Marcus  Stone's 
illustrations  for,  178 

Talfourd,  Thomas  Noon,  vii,  3,  14,  31, 
165;  his  friendship  with  Dickens, 
48-53;  said  to  have  been  original  of 
Tommy  Traddles,  61 ;  The  Pickwick 
Papers  dedicated  to,  48 

"Tatler,  The,"  158 

Ta-\dstock  House,  Dickens  becomes 
tenant  of,  173;  Frank  Stone  a  tenant 
of,  173;  parties  and  theatricals  at. 
Sec  under  Theatricals,  Amateur. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  231,  237 

Taylor,  Theodore,  302 

Taylor,  Tom,  316 

Teetotallers,  Dickens's  attitude  to- 
wards, 23,  24,  25 

Tennent,  Sir  James  Emerson,  his 
friendship  with  Dickens,  306 

Tenuiel,  Sir  John,  his  friendship  with 
Dickens,  296 

Tennyson,  Lord,  ix;  his  friendship 
with  Dickens,  219-220 

Thackeray,  Wilham  Makepeace,  3, 18, 
43,  106,  165,  260,  308;  his  friend- 
ship with  Dickens,  80-96;  his  quarrel 
with  Dickens,  90-96, 179,349;  his  re- 
conciliation with  Dickens,  95-96, 179 

Theatrical  Fund,  General,  86,  280 

Theatricals,  Amateur:  at  Miss  Kelly's 
theatre,  26,  35,  78,  104,  173,  189, 
269,  271,  273, 277,  287,  294,  298;  at 
Rochester,  333;  at  Rockingham 
Castle,  253,  262,  266;  at  Tavistock 
House,  178,  269,  277,  279,  285,  292, 
299,  306,  335,  344;  in  aid  of  Bourne- 
mouth Sanatoriimi,  336;  in  aid  of 
Douglas  Jerrold's  family,  297,  299, 
381 ;  in  aid  of  Fund  for  Curatorship 
of  Shakespeare's  house,  105, 120,167, 
269,  274,  278,  284,  294,  295,  299; 
in  aid  of  Guild  of  Literature  and 
Art,  106, 168, 173,  263,  269, 274,  278, 
284,  291, 294, 296, 298,  335,  336  344; 
in  aid  of  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Poole, 
26,  51,  104,  156,  173,  201,  209,  273, 
278,  284,  294;  in  Canada,  104, 
268;  Mrs.  Gamp's  account  of  the 
tour  of  1847,  26,  104,  274 

Theatricals,  Children's,  at  Tavistock 
House,  108,  277,  279,  297,  335,  383 


Thomas;  Owen  R.;  6 

Thomas,  W.  Moy,  341,  374 

Thomson,  David  Croal,  42 

Thornbury,  Walter,  374 

Thumb,  Tom,  154 

"Thumb,  Tom,"  279 

Ticknor  and  Fields,  238 

"Tillotson,  Mrs.,  The  Second,"  363 

"Times,  The,"  28,  329 

Tobin,  Daniel,  6 

Tom  Tiddler's  Ground,  318,  338,  372 

Toole,  .lohn  L.,  278 

Topham,  Francis  W.,  294 

"Tower  of  London,  The,"  16 

"Town  Talk,"  90 

Townshend,  Chauncey  Hare,  Dickens 

edits  "Literary  Remains"  of,  311; 

Great  Expectations  dedicated  to,  31 1 ; 

his  friendship  with  Dickens,  310-312 ; 

MS.  of  Great  Expectations  presented 

to,  311;   said  to  have  been  original 

of  Cousin  Feenix,  311;  said  to  have 

been  original  of  Mr.  Twemlow,  311 
Tracey,  Lieut.,  139 
Traddles,  Tommy,  T.  N.  Talfourd  said 

to  have  been  original  of,  51 
Trollope,  Anthony,  88 
Tulrumble,  Mr.,   The  Public  Life  of, 

Cruikshank's  illustrations  for,  25 
Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  111,328 
''Turpin,  Bold,  vunce  on  Houuslow 

Heath,"  15 
Twemlow,  Mr.,  the  reputed  original  of, 

311 
Twickenham,  10,  14,  66,  89,  107 
Twiss,  Horace,  71,  322 

Union  Club,  the,  187 

Unitarian  Creed,  Dickens's  temporary 

sympathy  with  248,  308 
"Used  Up,"  254,  266,  284,  296,  335 

Valetta,  306 

Varden,  Dolly,  W.  P.  Frith's  paintings 
of,  325 

Venus,  Mr.,  "discovered"  by  Marcus 
Stone,  178 

Victoria,  Queen,  Dickens  offers  to 
reveal  plot  of  Edwin  Drood  to,  319; 
Dickens's  audience  with,  319;  pur- 
chases Thackeray's  Presentation 
Copy  of  A  Christmas  Carol,  89 

Village  Coquettes,  The,  223,  362;  dedi- 
cated to  J.  P.  Harley,  302;  J.  P. 
Harley  appears  in,  302;  John 
Hullah's  music  for,    303 


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